The Spanish government has donated 4.4 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines to Nigeria.
The donation, it said, was in line with its unconditional defence of fair, equitable, and universal access to vaccines against COVID-19.
A statement on Wednesday from the Embassy of Spain in Nigeria explained that the handover ceremony of the single-dose vaccines took place at the premises of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency in Abuja on Tuesday.
In attendance at the event was the Executive Director of the Agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, the Ambassadors of Spain, Greece, Sweden, and Austria; UNICEF Director of Health, Mr. Eduardo Celades; WHO Deputy Country Representative, Mr. Alexander Chimbaru, and the European Union envoy, Ambassador Samuela Isopi.
The statement said, “With this donation, Spain stands out as the third donor of COVID vaccines to Nigeria. It is the largest donation Spain has done to a single country in Africa so far. Furthermore, these figures place Spain as the seventh-largest donor of vaccines in the world, with 70 million doses already delivered.
“Spain is fully committed to multilateral efforts. Consequently, this donation and more than 90 percent of Spanish donations have been made through the COVAX mechanism.”
Additionally, the embassy noted that the donation constituted one more action of the “Team Europe” in Nigeria, integrated by the European Union and its member states.
Altogether, the EU and EU countries had donated 30m vaccines to Nigeria so far.
To defeat the pandemic, the Spanish ambassador, Mr. Juan Sell, said it was important to reach every citizen and corner of the world, including the most remote areas with the vaccines.
He stated, “We have to strengthen primary health systems; and we must improve global mechanisms for technology transfer to decentralise the production of health products in all regions, particularly in Africa.
“In that sense, the President of the Government of Spain announced at the recent II Global Summit against COVID, that Spain will allocate $300m for the donation of an additional 30m COVID vaccines and to strengthen public health systems through projects related to COVID-19, which will be implemented by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation.”
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