Nigeria expects 41 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from African Union

By Alexis Akwagyiram
LAGOS, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Nigeria expects to receive 41
million COVID-19 vaccine doses from the African Union, the head
of the country's primary healthcare agency said on Monday, while
the health minister said vaccines from Russia and India were
being considered.
Authorities in Africa's most populous country, which has 200
million people, plan to inoculate 40% of the population this
year and another 30% in 2022.
The African Union initially secured 270 million COVID-19
vaccine doses from manufacturers for member states. Last week it
was announced that the bloc would receive another 400 million
doses of the AstraZeneca AZN.L vaccine.
Faisal Shuaib, who heads the National Primary Health Care
Development Agency, said Nigeria's previous request for 10
million doses through the AU had been increased four-fold.
"We have applied for 41 million doses of a combination of
Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines,"
Shuaib said in a text message response to written questions.
Shuaib said the request was for 7.6 million doses of the
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 15.3 million of the AstraZeneca vaccine
and 18.4 million of the Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N vaccine.
He said the doses were expected to arrive by the end of
April, adding that Nigeria was "exploring multiple payment
options" for the doses including through the African
Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) financing plan to make
repayments in installments over five to seven years.
Nigerian authorities have previously said the country is
working with the COVAX programme backed by the World Health
Organization, that aims to secure fair access to COVID-19
vaccines for poor countries, and expects to receive its first
doses in February.
Shuaib, speaking in a news conference in the capital Abuja,
said 16 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were expected
to be delivered under the COVAX programme. "This will replace
the earlier communicated 100,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines which
we all agreed was grossly inadequate," he said.
Health Minister Osagie Ehanire told reporters that dossiers
for two vaccines, one from India and another from Russia, were
being studied by the country's National Agency for Food and Drug
Administration and Control (NAFDAC) drugs regulator.
Nigeria has had 131,242 confirmed COVID-19 cases, resulting
in 1,586 deaths.