According to the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire COVID-19 vaccines will arrive in Nigeria by March.
The Minister announced this after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday 24th February in Abuja the Federal Capital.
A specific date for the arrival was not revealed by the Minister, but 4 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses are expected to be delivered based on a report by the FG as of last week.
Osagie also stated that 70 percent of the population were expected to receive treatment by 2023.
“We have been told to open an account with Afreximbank under the African Union; we have done that already successfully because we are going to pay for that part of the vaccine. The COVAX vaccine is free, at no cost to us, it is made from donations.
“We want to immunise about 60 to 70% of our population. If COVAX immunises 20, then we have about 40 to 50 to immunise within the next two years. So, we have to pay for that minus any donations that we get like the MTN donation, for example, all those ones reduce the quantities that 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 would be our turn or latest by beginning of next month.” he said.
Osagie had stated as of December 2020 that vaccines were expected to arrive in Nigeria by January.
It had also been stated earlier by the Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, that a total of 140 million Nigerians were expected to be vaccinated by 2023.
Today, Ghana received their first batch of 600,000 COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX becoming the first African country to receive the vaccines.
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