COVID-19: 50% of Nigerians will receive free Vaccines - FG

The federal government has revealed that it has made a provision in the 2021 budget, enabling the payment of free COVID-19 vaccination for 50% of the population.

This was disclosed on Tuesday by Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation Ben Akabueze, during the 2021 budget breakdown in Abuja.

The National Assembly had reviewed the 2021 budget by N500 billion which gave accommodation for the purchase and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

Speaking during the 2021 budget breakdown, Akubueze said that “there is a global alliance to support economically weak nations with vaccines, our understanding of the current plan is that we will be getting vaccines donations to cover up to 20 per cent of our population but then the global standards say that to achieve herd immunity you have to vaccine at least 70 per cent of the population and so there is a 50 per cent of the population that we may be required to pay for their own vaccination”.

He further said that there is an “inter-ministerial committee looking at this matters and the assurance is that government will do whatever is needful to keep the citizens and economy safe even if it means coming back with a supplementary budget.”