Nigeria lacks resources to pre-order COVID-19 vaccine

Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has said that Nigeria lacks the resources to pre-order the COVID-19 vaccine.

On this note, he appealed to Europe to work closely with Africa to ensure that when a vaccine is finally deployed, it would not be on the basis of the highest bidder but rather, be made available at an affordable and in an accessible manner.

In a statement released by Laolu Akande, his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, the Vice-President spoke at the virtual 2020 EURAFRICA Forum with the theme, ‘Towards a realistic Euro-African partnership during and beyond the COVID-19 era’ held on Friday.

Akande’s statement was titled, ‘COVID-19 pandemic: Vaccine distribution should be accessible to all, not on the basis of the highest bidder, says Osinbajo at EURAFRICA Forum.’

The Vice President was quoted as saying that:

“Although Nigeria does not have the resources or means to pre-pay for a COVID-19 vaccine, we are fortunate to be a GAVI supported country and we urge the EU to lend support to GAVI’s effort to ensure equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines under the COVAX initiative.

This way, poorer countries and their citizens will get the vaccines that they need at the same time as the rest of the world.

Europe should work closely with Africa to ensure that when a vaccine is finally deployed, it should not be on the basis of the highest bidder but rather be made available at an affordable and in an accessible manner.

This is a matter that should not be taken for granted. We saw during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in richer parts of the world, that orders for test kits and reagents by African countries were deemed too small and tended to be ignored.”