COVID-19 Vaccines: Nigerian government to present supplementary budget

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said on Thursday that a supplementary budget would be presented to the National Assembly for COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination of frontline workers. She said the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines would arrive in the country in one week.

She said this during the maiden edition of the weekly special ministerial media briefing, organized by the Presidential Communications Team, held at the State House, Abuja.

“As we see the oil price rising and providing more revenue, it also provides us with some reliefs. We’ll be able to reduce our borrowing so it is a positive thing for us and also, we have a provision in the 2021 budget for immunization.

“We’re already releasing money to the health authority to start operations with the first batch of vaccines that are going to arrive in the country in one week. But what we have in the budget is not enough. So, we’re working with the health authorities to provide a plan that’ll be taken to the President for approval and the National Assembly as a supplementary budget specifically for COVID -19 vaccination,” she said.

The minister said Nigeria would regress if it failed to borrow more to finance critical infrastructure in the country.

She added that though the country had expanded its borrowing, it was still below 25% debt to GDP ratio and within the borrowing limit.

“There’s a lot of sensitivity in Nigeria about the level of borrowing by the government and it’s not misplaced. As I said earlier that the level of borrowing is not unreasonable, it’s not high.”

Suzan O/NAN