COVID-19: FG Refutes Allocating ₦10bn For Vaccine Transportation

The federal government has described as untrue reports that it has budgeted ₦10 billion for transportation and distribution of COVID-19 vaccine.

PUNCH had, in a report on Saturday, claimed that the federal government had budgeted N10.6 billion for the transportation of COVID-19 vaccines to the 36 states of the federation and the federal capital territory.

But speaking on Saturday after doses of AstraZeneca vaccines were administered to President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential villa, Abuja, Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said it was impossible to spend such amount on vaccine transportation.

Shuaib disclosed that Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) had already volunteered to help in transporting and distributing the vaccine to states, taking such burden off the neck of the government.

He explained that a cargo plane provided by CACOVID will be used to deliver the vaccines to states with functional airports, while a delivery van will be used for states without functional airports.

He added that the only costs that will be borne by the government is transportation to states without functional airports, which cannot cost anywhere near ₦10 billion.

“I mean, I’m hearing this from you for the first time. It doesn’t make any sense that on the one hand, we’ve communicated very clearly to Nigerians that the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID), a private sector initiative, has provided a cargo plane that will help deliver the vaccines from Abuja to all states that have functional airports,” he said.

“For those that do not have functional airports, there is a delivery van that will convey the vaccines from those airports to the states without functionality.

“I do not see how that is going to cost N10 billion. So there is no truth in that information.

“The only cost we’re going to incur is the cost of delivering the vaccines from any airport to nearby states that don’t have functional airports. Clearly that cannot be N10.6 billion,” he said.

” So it is not correct to say that the federal government is going to be expending N10.6 billion to transport vaccines to the state. That is incredulous.”

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