The Federal Government of Nigeria has disclosed that it will need about N2.44tn for the vaccination of 164.8 million Nigerians, who will not have access to the free vaccines the country is expecting from the international community.
Currently, the Covid-19 vaccines available globally include those discovered by Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Oxford, and Novavax.
Recently, the chief director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Faisal Shuaib, at a news conference of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, the country’s capital said 100 thousand doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are going to be received by the country at the top of this month.
Shuaib also said Nigeria will secure free delivery of 42 million doses of vaccines, which will be a combination of all the available and approved vaccines currently in the market.
He also said the 42 million doses of the vaccines will cover only 20 per cent of the country’s population, which the National Population Commission, recently put at 206 million.
Read also: Nigeria Targets 42 Million Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine via COVAX Scheme
Shuaib added that the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, the Presidential Task Force, and the Federal Ministry of Health was working on financial requirements for procuring more vaccines.
He, however, said Nigeria needed to cover only 70 per cent of its population with vaccination to battle the virus.
But based on his statement that the 42 million doses of vaccines, which Nigeria will get free of charge, will cover 20 per cent of Nigeria’s population, it means 41.2 million Nigerians will be vaccinated against COVID-19, thus, leaving 164.8 million others unprotected.
Based on the two-dose requirement for each of the 164.8 million Nigerians, it means the country will need $6.43bn or N2.44tn (using CBN official exchange rate of N379/$1) to procure the vaccine for them.