80m doses of COVID-19 vaccines expected in 2021 – Fayemi

Ekiti State Governor and Chairman, Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Kayode Fayemi, says Nigeria is planning to procure about 80 million doses of vaccines in 2021 to cover 40 percent of the population.

He said another 60 million doses were being planned for 2022.

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He spoke at Chatham House Event, London on Tuesday on ‘The Role of Nigeria’s State Governments in Recovery: Responses to COVID-19 Linked Challenges”.

Fayemi said state governors were working with the Federal Government to ensure availability of vaccines in the country.

He said Nigeria’s approach to tackling the pandemic and its impact on the nation must shift from emergency response to strengthening the resilience and sustainability of the health system in the country.

“Using the Vaccines Readiness Assessment Tool, I’ve encouraged my colleagues to revisit and strengthen their vaccines cold chain and logistics, step up demand creation and communication and map out priority persons to receive vaccines amongst other things.

“On the economic front, our major priority is to secure livelihoods. National monetary and fiscal policy reforms must align to support improvements in household income. Working with the federal government, a number of employment creation programs have been created and currently being implemented,” he said.