The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, disclosed that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has received the dossiers of four different COVID-19 vaccines for evaluation ahead of their usage in Nigeria.
Ehanire disclosed this at the weekly press briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja.
He says the results of some of the evaluations were almost ready.
He says since all COVID-19 vaccines were carrying a certain amount of risk, any vaccine not approved by the Ministry of Health through its agencies would not be used in Nigeria.
The minister says, “The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has received dossiers for Sputnik V vaccine of Russia, Covishield or Astra Zeneca manufactured under licence by Serum Institute of India, Covaxin by Bharat vaccines of India and the Sinopharm Vaccine of China, for evaluation and validation for use in Nigeria. Some of them are nearly ready for results.
Ehanire says his ministry engaged The Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team who he said informed the government of the free allocation of 1.4 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines, of which 500,000 doses are expected by the end of February, courtesy of MTN donation of seven million doses to Africa.
He added that the balance of 900,000 doses for Nigeria is expected by the end of March 2021 while other sources of vaccines are under negotiation.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Faisal Shuaib, disclosed that the government planned to vaccinate 109 million Nigerians in two years.
