Former governor of Anambra, Peter Obi has stated that the federal government’s budget of N400bn for Coronavirus vaccines exceeds the amount that can be used to procure vaccines for 70 per cent of the country’s population if the National Vaccine Production Facility is operational.
The former Governor of Anambra who appeared on an Arise Television programme today February 2, also agreed to help the federal government broker a deal of N150bn that will help in vaccination of 70% of Nigeria’s population.
Obi said “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. 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 are far in excess of what we need. World Health Organisation said if you can inject 70 per cent of your population, that’s it. 70 per cent 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 are about N150bn to buy it. If they have an 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 a discount. If they want I can go for the negotiation. It won’t cost more than $2 each.”