The Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund (NSSF) said it would partner Global Citizen to bridge COVID-19 vaccination gaps in Nigeria by vaccinating no fewer than one million citizens.
This, it said, is part of its strategic priority for 2021/2022.
The programme would be flagged off on September 25, 2021 as the fund plans to combine efforts with the international advocacy organization, Global Citizen, at the Global Citizen Live event.
Established as a partnership between Global Citizen and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), the NSSF is a platform for resource mobilization primarily created to complement government’s efforts to mitigate the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on Nigerians.
Vice Chairman of Global Citizen Nigeria, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, who spoke in Lagos, decried the slow pace of vaccination of Nigerians against the dreaded COVID-19 infection.
He said, “There is only one way of dealing with this pandemic, which is the vaccines and as we well know, to get the type of immunity that makes a nation safe, there is a minimum percentage of the population that needs to be covered, typically well above 60%. In Nigeria, we are way below that with only about 1% of the populace having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines.
“Considering the scary statistics and the need to act fast to save lives, we are putting necessary mechanisms in place to enable us mobilize the required resources to get at least one million Nigerians vaccinated before the end of 2022,” he said.
