Nigeria requests 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from African Union

By Felix Onuah
ABUJA, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Nigeria has written to the African
Union to request 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to supplement
the COVAX programme and has allocated $26 million for licensed
vaccine production, the health minister said on Monday.
Nigeria, like other countries across Africa, is grappling
with a second wave of the novel coronavirus. As of Monday,
Nigeria, the continent's most populous country of 200 million
inhabitants, had 110,387 confirmed cases and 1,435 deaths.
The African Union has secured a provisional 270 million
COVID-19 vaccine doses from manufacturers for member states, its
chair South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said last week.
"Nigeria has written to express interest in 10 million doses
of the viral vector vaccine, which could be supplied as from
March 2021," Health Minister Osagie Ehanire told reporters in
the capital Abuja. "This vaccine does not require deep
freezers." Ehanire did not mention the name of the vaccine.
He also said the ministry of finance had released 10 billion
naira ($26.27 million) to support domestic vaccine output as
Nigeria was exploring options of "licensed production in
collaboration with recognised institutions". The government is
already in talks with "one or two producers", he said.
Last week the finance minister said the government was
working on the type and quantity of COVID-19 vaccines to procure
and would make financial provision for them.
Nigerian authorities have said the country is working with
the COVAX programme backed by the World Health Organization
(WHO) that aims to secure fair access to COVID-19 vaccines for
poor countries, and expects to receive its first doses in late
January and early February.
WHO Africa director Matshidiso Moeti last week said African
countries could start to receive the first doses from COVAX by
the end of March, with larger deliveries by June. = 380.7000 naira)