Ehanire made this known on Monday in Abuja while briefing
the Senate leadership on the Federal Government plans to procure COVID-19
vaccines worth N400 billion for citizens.
The minister noted that the country which had successfully
fought polio, would use the same storage facilities (cold chains) to store the
COVID-19 vaccines.
He urged the Senate to have confidence in the plan for
COVID-19 vaccine campaign.
He said that about N400 billion would be required to
vaccinate 70 per cent of Nigeria’s 211 million population, at eight dollars per
person.
According to him, N156 billion will be needed in 2021 while
N200 billion in 2022.
In his remarks, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan
expressed doubt over the ability of the Federal Ministry of Health to
effectively store and distribute the COVID-19 vaccines when they arrive in the
country.
Lawan said the National Assembly was ready to support the
funding of adequate vaccines to save Nigerians.
He noted that officials of the Ministry of Health must
convince the parliament that they had adequate facilities and manpower to
protect the preventive substance.
“I have not been convinced with your presentation that we
are ready to bring in the vaccines.
“You have to do much more to convince me that we are ready,”
he added.
0 comments:
Post a Comment