A former governor of Anambra, Mr Peter Obi says Nigeria doesn’t need
more than N150 billion to procure COVID-19 vaccines.
Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, said in December 2020 that the
federal government needs about N400 billion for COVID-19 vaccines.
According to Ehanire, N400 billion would be required to vaccinate 70
percent of Nigeria’s over 200 million population, at $8 per person.
Commenting on the issue when he featured on ARISE Television on Tuesday,
Obi said there are issues of transparency regarding the procurement of
vaccines.
“The ex-governor said Nigeria would not have needed to spend so much in
procuring vaccines if its National Vaccine Production Facility was
operational.
“The issue of vaccine is one that I feel a sense of pain. Nigeria as a
country in 1940 established what we called National Vaccine Production
Facility domiciled in Yaba, and that was able to produce virtually all
the vaccines we used in the days of smallpox, yellow fever, and that
facility was shut down in 1991 to be refurbished and upgraded, there was
nothing wrong with it,” Obi said.
“And till today that has been the case deliberately so that people can
import vaccines and sell to the government.
“Now I hear that we are looking for N400bn. Well, I am at loss. Our
budget this year for health is N547bn. I don’t know if they are going to
take this vaccine procurement from it, because if they do, we are left
with N147bn.
“For the vaccine procurement also, we need to have transparency in the
procurement. Today, vaccine in India costs between $2 25 cents to $3.
That is an average of $2.75 and if you say you are going to use N400
billion, that is about $1bn. If you divide $1bn by $2.75cents each, that
is about 350 million doses which is far in excess of what we need.
“World Health Organisation said if you can inject 70 percent of your
population, that’s it. 70 percent of Nigeria is about 140 million so we
are actually looking for 140 million doses. Considering that some other
people are going to give us some free, we actually don’t need more than
120 million. But even if we’re buying 140 million, we just need about
three hundred and eighty-something million dollars which is about N150bn
to buy it.
“If they have a N400bn budget to buy the vaccine, my suggestion, they
don’t need to award contracts in this vaccine, let them just call Serum
institute in India and plead with them. I am sure they will even give us
discount. If they want I can go for the negotiation. It won’t cost more
than $2 each.”