The Federal Government has revealed the number of Nigerians to be vaccinated according to provisions made h in the 2021 budget.
According to the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, the Federal Government will pay for the vaccination of around 103 million Nigerians or 50 percent of the population against COVID-19.
Akabueze made this disclosure in Abuja on Tuesday during the budget 2021 budget breakdown.
He explained that there is a global alliance to support economically weak countries, such as Nigeria with vaccines.
“Our understanding of the current plan is that we will be getting vaccines donations to cover up to 20 percent of our population but then the global standards says that to achieve herd immunity you have to vaccine at least 70 percent of the population and so there is a 50 percent of the population that we may be required to pay for their own vaccination.”
He added that the assurance is that the Federal government will do everything within its powers to keep Nigerians and economy safe even if it means coming back with a supplementary budget.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported 1,244 new cases of COVID-19 infections in the country at the weekend.
And on Tuesday, the agency reported that the country now has a total of 1,361 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Nigeria now has over 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases of COVID-19
