Nigeria to Receive 16m free COVID-19 Vaccines says UK Government

The UK Government have announcement yesterday that the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) have agreed that Nigeria will be among the first group of countries to receive 16 million free doses of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX Global Vaccines Facilities.

The British High Commission Office released a statement to the the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) indicating that the free doses will be widely available in the first half of the year.

In the statement, GAVI released the first forecast of countries which are widely available to receive COVID-19 vaccines via the COVAX Advance Market Commitment. The COVAX statement highlighted that it is allocating 330 million vaccine doses to low and lower middle class income countries, including Nigeria.

“As one of the 92 ODA-eligible countries participating in the COVAX AMC initiative, Nigeria will benefit from this arrangement and access free vaccines to cover at least 20 per cent of its population, and the UK is playing a supportive role in ensuring an effective and equitable introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, “it said

The UK are are regarded to be the leading nation tackling the COVID-19 pandemic internationally and so far have pledged over 1.3 billion pounds in UK aid to end the corona virus pandemic as swiftly as possible.

The UK are respected to be one of the largest donors to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, which over past two decades have contributed towards updating cold chain infrastructure and improving immunisation procedures in low income countries around the world.

Catriona Laing, The British High Commissioner, stated “This news on the COVAX global COVID-19 vaccine rollout brings us one step closer to delivering vaccines to millions of Nigerians”.

She continued “I am please to announce Nigeria will get millions of these free available doses by the end of 2021”.

This positive announcement comes after the BUA Group announced they will be providing 1 million free COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria in the upcoming weeks.

For more information about the West African Beauty and Cosmetics sector, Click Here

Source: The Guardian Nigeria, February 2021