We Can’t Spend N400BN On Vaccines When Our Budget For Health Is N547BN – Peter Obi

Ex Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi has come out to say that Nigeria doesn’t need over N150 billion to procure COVID-19 vaccines.

The PDP politician recently had his say when he featured on ARISE Television, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, there are problems of transparency regarding the procurement of vaccines amid the pandemic in Nigeria, and the nation will not have to spend so much if its National Vaccine Production Facility was operational.

He added that it makes no sense to spend N400bn for coronavirus vaccines when Nigeria’s budget for health in 2021 is N547bn.

His words, “The issue of vaccine is one that I feel a sense of pain. Nigeria as a country in 1940 established what we called National Vaccine Production Facility domiciled in Yaba, and that was able to produce virtually all the vaccines we used in the days of smallpox, yellow fever and that facility was shut down in 1991 to be refurbished and upgraded. There was nothing wrong with it and till today, that has been the case deliberately so that people can import vaccines and sell to the government.”

“Now, I hear that we are looking for N400bn. Well, I am at loss. Our budget this year for health is N547bn. I don’t know if they are going to take this vaccine procurement from it because if they do, we are left with N147bn.”

“For the vaccine procurement also, we need to have transparency in the procurement. Today, vaccine in India costs between $2 25 cents to $3. That is an average of $2.75 and if you say you are going to use N400 billion, that is about $1bn. If you divide $1bn by $2.75cents each, that is about 350 million doses which is far in excess of what we need.”

“World Health Organisation said if you can inject 70 percent of your population, that’s it. 70 percent of Nigeria is about 140 million so we are actually looking for 140 million doses. Considering that some other people are going to give us some free, we actually don’t need more than 120 million. But even if we’re buying 140 million, we just need about three hundred and eighty-something million dollars which is about N150bn to buy it.”

“If they have a N400bn budget to buy the vaccine, my suggestion is, they don’t need to award contracts in this vaccine, let them just call Serum institute in India and plead with them. I am sure they will even give us discount. If they want, I can go for the negotiation. It won’t cost more than $2 each.”

“Now if you divide N5000 with N400 exchange rate, it will give you $12.50. When you divide $12.50 by 30 days, it gives you 42 cents. So by sharing N5000 per month to them, you are only giving them about 20% of the $1.9 they require to live above poverty. Worse still, you are only paying them the money for 6 months.”

“Any government that desires to pull its people out of poverty should adopt a properly articulated fiscal and monetary stimulus to support micro, small, medium entreprises and also provide jobs that will pay people at least N25,000 per month.”