… says vaccine must be affordable, accessible
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on Saturday, lamented that Nigeria lacked the resources to pre-pay for COVID-19 vaccine.
Osinbajo, therefore, appealed to the developed world to work closely with Africa to ensure that when a vaccine is finally deployed, it should not be on the basis of the highest bidder but rather be made available at an affordable and accessible manner.
His Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, said in a statement on Saturday that the Vice-President spoke at the virtual 2020 EURAFRICA Forum with the theme, ‘Towards a realistic Euro-African partnership during and beyond the COVID-19 era’ held on Friday.
Akande’s statement was titled, ‘COVID-19 pandemic: Vaccine distribution should be accessible to all, not on the basis of highest bidder, says Osinbajo at EURAFRICA Forum.’
The statement quoted Osinbajo as saying that “Although Nigeria does not have the resources or means to pre-pay for a COVID-19 vaccine, we are fortunate to be a GAVI supported country and we urge the EU to lend support to GAVI’s effort to ensure equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines under the COVAX initiative.
“This way, poorer countries and their citizens will get the vaccines that they need at the same time as the rest of the world.”
Speaking on the need for an equitable distribution of vaccines to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, Osinbajo reportedly said the first thing that comes to mind “is to ensure widespread and equitable access to a COVID-19 vaccine.”
He added, “Europe should work closely with Africa to ensure that when a vaccine is finally deployed, it should not be on the basis of the highest bidder but rather be made available at an affordable and in an accessible manner.
“This is a matter that should not be taken for granted. We saw during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in richer parts of the world, that orders for test kits and reagents by African countries were deemed too small and tended to be ignored.”