BUA Group, a leading Foods and Infrastructure Conglomerates headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, says it has purchased one million doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines for Nigeria and is expected to be distributed to Nigerians at no cost.
The group says it purchased the vaccines through the AfreximBank vaccine programme in partnership with Private Sector Coalition Against Covid-19 (CACOVID).
This will be the first delivery of vaccines to Nigeria since the Covid-19 vaccines became available, and is expected to be delivered by next week.
Abdul Samad Rabiu, the founder of BUA, thanked Benedict Oramah, president of the AfreximBank, for making the purchase possible and Godwin Emefiele, governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, for coordinating the process through CACOVID.
“BUA decided to secure these one million vaccines by paying the full amount for the vaccines today because these vaccines became available only last week through AFREXIM. We expect the vaccines to be delivered within the next 14 days and hope priority will be given to our frontline workers who have committed their lives to managing the pandemic,” he said.
“In addition to this, BUA is committing to purchase 5 million doses for Nigeria as soon as they become available through this same arrangement.”
By Abel Ejikeme