The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has said that the coordination of COVID-19 vaccine delivery has been difficult.
Speaking at a virtual meeting, she raised issues on the modalities, saying, “What exactly are the existing mechanisms for countries to access? We have had bits and pieces of information. But till date, this has not been as coordinated as hoped.”
From her ministry’s perspective, she also said, “Understanding the urgency of the moment, there needs to be a greater inclusion and involvement of finance ministers as budgetary allocations need to be made and financing secured, both locally and possibly, internationally.”
Against the backdrop of real time challenges in preparing for the receipt of COVID-19 vaccines rollout and the real time information and funding gaps, Zainab urged that access to vaccine financing should be simplified and an act of global solidarity should be to support finance ministries with the necessary capacity required to complete what could often be a complex and laborious bureaucratic process.
“We welcome this opportunity to dialogue with one another and with many of our international partners and friends to find joint solutions to this pandemic and enable us to recover and build back quickly. We look forward to a commitment of greater transparency of information for future planning across health and finance and potential mechanisms for such transparency and information sharing,” she said.
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