The Nigerian government has approved the total sum of N81.3 billion for the procurement and distribution of Vaccines across the country.
The amount was contained in the approved 2021 supplementary budget published on the budget office website.
According to the document, the federal government will spend N60.7 billion on Johnson & Johnson vaccine procurement, while N20.67 billion will be spent on delivering vaccines to every ward in the country.
The document explained that the amount budgeted covers operation while the federal government will be funding 100 percent of the needs to ensure availability of Primary Health Centres and health workers to deliver Vaccines.
The government had announced in March that it was hoping to secure 70 million doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine this year through an African Union programme, with an initial batch of 30 million to be delivered in the third quarter.
According to Zainab Ahmed, the government will have to use the supplementary budget to procure the vaccines.
This according to her will help inoculate at least 40 percent of Nigeria’s 200 million people this year and another 30 percent in 2022.
Other items in the supplementary budget related to COVID-19 are the procurement and installation of new oxygen plants nationwide and repair of oxygen plants in FCT hospitals which will cost N6.7 billion.
