By Cyril Okonkwo, Abuja
Nigeria has signed agreements with the World Health Organisation, WHO, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, for the procurement of the COVID-19 vaccines immediately they are available.
Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, stated this on Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents after the meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Ehanire, however, noted that the vaccines are new and that while the producers are not giving any indemnity for their products, they are giving priority to their countries.
He said, “These countries where these vaccines are manufactured, have of course, given themselves the priority to serve themselves, serve their own citizens first and we hope that the pressure from the World Health Organisation and Gavi will be able to get reserves for other countries that are not manufacturing and they will be able to attend to what we signed up to.
“We signed up for advanced market participation in COVAX. So, if we will be able to get our own, I think it will be in January.”
Storage
Ehanire said that issue of storage was also being giving attention because the different types of vaccines require various ways of storage.
“But there are two types of vaccines; there are those that have to be in ultra deep freezers – the MRA type of vaccines. That is the freezer that must give you minus 80 degrees.
“The one that will be in regulator refrigerators is easy. We have them here. The one that will be in minus 20 degrees refrigerators is also going to be possible because we also have the freezers here.
“But the one that will be in ultra cold freezers, we hardly have ultra cold freezers in this country and to receive and store in those ultra cold freezers will require that you purchase the ultra cold freezers.
“So, we are working on the cost; which one shall we get first? Obviously the one we can afford
“Remember that we have 200 million citizens; we need to have a way to be able to get enough to take care of our citizens.
“So, that means we must be able to get the vaccines that work well, with good cost of storage and cost of delivery. That is the one we will like to get as soon as they are available,” the minister explained.
Bilateral discussions
Ehanire said that the Ministry of Health has also had bilateral discussions with manufacturers of vaccines in its efforts to make them available in Nigeria.
“Some of them have written to us that they want to have discussions with us. One of them, as I speak to you, is already having a discussion with the Ministry of Health and the one that British and Russia team are putting together.
“We are working with them because if we cannot get enough from one source, we should be able to get from other sources.
“So, we are looking at multiple sources. We had a conversation with United Arab Emirates.
“The ambassador came to see us and told us that they are buying vaccines from China and had tested them.
“So, they said they are introducing them to us; and we said we would listen to them because the one that is effective and healthy in those countries and is available is the one we shall bring and that has also proven to be safe,” he said.
Cancer treatment centre.
The minister also said that the cabinet approved the setting up a comprehensive cancer treatment centre in Maiduguri, Borno State.
Other memos approved for the Ministry of Health at the meeting were those for the buying of vehicles for the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC and for the bringing of some specialised pain killers and making them more available for use in Nigeria.
Confidence Okwuchi
