…How African countries are preparing for vaccine roll-out
The Federal Government said yesterday it was still working on the type and and quantity of COVID-19 vaccines to procure when some other countries on the continent are already placing orders on the product.
For instance, countries such as South Africa, Senegal, Kenya and Egypt, among others, are expecting delivery of the vaccines in a few weeks.
However, the Finance Minister, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, who disclosed this yesterday at the 2021 budget ministerial briefing, said the federal government would seek
supplementary budget for 2021 fiscal year to fund Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination program.
She said already, a combined team of the relevant authorities, including the Ministry Finance, Ministry of Health and the Budget Office of the Federation, was currently working on the cost of the program.
Mrs. Ahmed said the Minister of Health and his team were still working on the details of what it would cost the nation.
She stated: “We agreed that more efforts is needed to have clarity as to whether the provisions in the budget will be adequate or we have to make additional provisions by way of a special supplementary budget to make more provisions for COVID-19 vaccinations”.
According to her, once the executive arm is sure of what it would cost to buy the vaccines, with the necessary logistics, a supplementary budget would be presented to the National Assembly.
The D-G Budget, Ben Akabueze, who gave further explanation said that the vaccination of 20 per cent of the population would be covered by donations but that given the standard practice of having to vaccinate at least 70 per cent, the nation has to pay for the cost of vaccines for the balance of 50 per cent of the population.
How African countries are preparing for vaccine roll-out
However, as COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out globally, African nations are putting finishing touches to their preparations to purchase them and begin their vaccination campaigns.
The World Health Organisation, WHO, wants pharmaceutical companies to use the COVAX mechanism it set up along with the international vaccine organisation Gavi to distribute jabs to under-developed countries.
COVAX has agreements to support 92 low- and middle-income countries, more than half of them in Africa. It has struck deals to procure two billion vaccine doses, the first doses to be delivered by the end of January.
But COVAX has indicated that deliveries will only start in the second quarter of 2021, so to avoid being totally excluded from advance access to vaccines, most african countries are eyeing supplies of Chinese and Russian vaccines, which may have not been tested as extensively as the Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines, but are most likely cheaper and easier to store.
Nigeria is expecting its first shipment of 100,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by the end of January. It is not clear which of the vaccines brands the country plans to purchase eventually, but negotiations are ongoing according to the Minister of Health, Dr, Osagie Ehanire.
Nigeria plans to vaccinate 40 percent of the population in 2021 and another 30 percent by the end of 2022. The government is expecting 20 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Seychelles became the first African country to start inoculating its population on January 10, utilising the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine
South Africa has ordered 1.5 million doses of the Oxford university/AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India. One million doses will be delivered in January followed by 500,000 in February.
South Africa has also secured 20 million doses through another arrangement, and signed up to receive vaccines for six million from COVAX, the international facility set up to pool orders for countries.
Kenya has ordered 24 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and expects them to start arriving in the second week of February.
Senegal is expecting its first doses of the vaccines in March 2021 through a partnership with WHO, UNICEF, World Bank and the European Union.
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Botswana are negotiating for access to China for unspecified doses of its Sinopharm vaccine.
Morocco is in position to get priority access to 10 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine in exchange for its participation in Stage 3 trials. Vaccination campaign is expected to begin by early February.
Egypt plans to provide 20 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine after signing an official agreement with Gavi which is entrusted with distributing vaccines worldwide and approving vaccines with the WHO.
Guinea ordered 55 doses of the Russian Sputnik vaccine in December for some of its government officials.
Acquiring sufficient vaccines is a financial challenge for Africa as only a few of the countries have adequate plans for funding vaccination programmes, according to the World Health Organisation, WHO, which expects that 3 percent of Africans will be vaccinated by March 2021 and 20 percent by the end of 2022.
Besides getting adequate vaccine supplies, African countries face storage challenges. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines require storage at -70 and -20 degrees respectively, making their distribution and storage cumbersome.
According to a survey by the Centres for Diseases Control and Prevention, CDC, Africa and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 79 percent of people in 15 African countries are ready to be vaccinated if the vaccines are safe and effective.