FG explains delay in COVID-19 vaccines delivery

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, says Nigeria’s access to COVID-19 vaccines is from three sources which may require patience.

He said the first source, the COVAX facility, set up by the World Health Organisation and GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, had 92 countries to cater for and would only cover 20 % of Nigeria’s population with vaccines.

He said the second source, African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, set up by the African Union, would pull resources together from the Afreximbank based Cairo to procure vaccines for all African countries and pay back the money in five to seven years.

He said the third avenue to get the vaccine was through bilateral agreement such as the donation of 7 million doses to Africa by MTN out of which the country would get 1.4 million and 100,000 doses to Nigeria from the Government of India. Ehanire said: “Now, you can see that all of these are coming from various sources, but put together, they almost satisfy our needs so that we don’t really need to procure.

“But the question is, when are they delivering? That’s not in our hands. It’s in the hand of the person who is bringing it to us.

“We’ve been told to open an account with Afreximbank under the African Union, we’ve done that already successfully because we’re going to pay for that part of the vaccine. The COVAX vaccine is free, at no cost to us, it’s made from donations.

“We want to immunise about 60 to 70% of our population. If COVAX immunises 20, then we’ve about 40 to 50 to immunise within the next two years.

“So, we’ve to pay for that minus any donations that we get like the MTN donation. For example, all those ones reduce the quantities we have to purchase or any other that in future are given to us free of charge. “Now, the COVAX will start delivering to African countries before the end of February. That’s what they told us. But they didn’t tell us which country is first or which is second, which is third.

“So, COVAX begins to deliver before the end of February. And we hope that before the end of this month, it’d be our turn or latest by beginning of next month.

“As for us here, we’re ready to use vaccination once it arrives, we met all the conditions. They’ve asked us to sign an indemnification form, we’ve done that.  Indemnification means that you do not hold us responsible for anything that happens from using this vaccine.

“That’s a standard process. We’ve signed that indemnification and so we’re waiting for the vaccines to arrive anytime.”