The Federal government of Nigeria plans to vaccinate more than 140 million people by the end of 2022, about 70% of the population. The announcement was made by Faisal Shuaib (photo), chief executive officer of Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency.

According to the official, the government plans to vaccinate 40% of its population by the end of this year and then vaccinate the remaining 30% next year. To do so, Nigeria will benefit from the Covax initiative, which aims to provide 2 billion doses of vaccine to developing countries by the end of 2021.

Negotiations have also begun with Russian, British, and Chinese vaccine manufacturers to cover Nigeria's needs. However, according to several analysts, this goal is unattainable for Nigeria, given the country's current situation.

“We don’t have a) the money, and b) the infrastructure to distribute this amount of vaccines,” Cheta Nwanze, a partner with Lagos-based risk consultancy SBM Intelligence told Bloomberg. Also, with the current situation in the country, many Nigerians may find themselves de facto excluded from the vaccination program.

Moreover, the country will also have to deal with the reluctance of a certain part of the population regarding the reliability of the vaccine. To this end, the Nigerian authorities have made several media releases to reassure the population and disprove rumors about the danger of vaccines.

According to Director Shuaib, the government in collaboration with the private sector is setting up ultra-cold facilities to facilitate the storage and distribution of vaccines.

By the end of January, 100,000 doses of the vaccine developed by the U.S. company Pfizer are expected to be delivered to Nigeria.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou