The Federal Government of Nigeria has released N29.1billion from the Routine Immunization budgetary provision to serve as operational cost for COVID-19 vaccine roll out.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, made this known while speaking at ‘Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI) General Assembly’ webinar.
She also reiterated the government’s commitment to procuring 29.588 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine through the AVAT initiative, coordinated by Afrexim Bank.
A statement issued on Friday by the Special Adviser, Media and Communications to the minister, Yunusa Abdullahi, said the government is working on a supplementary budget to provide for the cost of vaccine procurement and delivery.
She said, “Already, the sum of N29.1bn has been released from the Routine Immunization budgetary provision (Service Wide Vote) to the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) as an advance for the operational cost of deployment of the COVID-19 vaccines.
“The N29.1bn represents about 52 percent of the amount required over 2021-22”, Ahmed said.
“Therefore, the supplementary budget for COVID-19 vaccines will cover the cost of additional vaccines over and above those provided by COVAX, as well as the full cost of operations and logistics for delivering the vaccines around the country.”
At the 18th General Assembly of CABRI, Ahmed said that the World Bank has indicated willingness to provide needed facilities in support of our COVID-19 vaccination plan.
She noted that the nation has received commitments from COVAX for COVID-19 vaccines that could cover 43.1 million of the eligible population, as donations from some development partners.
