The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), on Tuesday, said they are working with the Federal Government to make coronavirus vaccines available in the country as about 80 million doses of the vaccine will be made available in 2021 to cover 40 percent of the population, while another 60 million doses are being planned ahead of 2022.
This was disclosed by the Forum’s Chairman and Governor of Ekiti state, Kayode Fayemi, in a press statement tagged “The role of Nigeria’s state governments in recovery: responses to COVID-19 linked challenges’’.
Fayemi, while speaking to correspondents in Abuj,a said the Covid-19 pandemic has been a challenge to the health and economy of the nations, including Nigeria.
He also said that using the Vaccines Readiness Assessment Tool (VRAT), governors were encouraged to revisit and strengthen their vaccines’ cold chain and logistics, step up demand creation, and communication.
Owing to that, he mentioned that beyond the government’s procurement of the vaccines, NGF is also a strong proponent of the utilization of Public-Private Partnerships in vaccine procurement as a means of closing the gap between what is available and what is necessary to achieve herd immunity.
The Chairman also said the forum’s significant priority is to secure livelihoods, adding that governors should map out persons prioritized to receive vaccines first amongst other things.
“Using the vaccines Readiness Assessment Tool (VIRAT), I have encouraged my colleagues to revisit and strengthen their vaccines cold chain and logistics, step up demand creation and communication and map out priority to receive vaccines amongst other things”.
He said he wasn’t surprised that Nigeria’s GDP contracted by 3.5 percent in 2020 given the impact of the second wave of the pandemic, saying it is uncertain if any growth will be recorded in 2021 on the country’s GDP.
“So, it was unsurprising that our GDP contracted by 3.5% in 2020. Given the impact of the second wave of the pandemic it is unlikely that we see GDP growth recovery to pre-pandemic levels in 2021”.
He further advised that all sectors in the country should ensure to participate towards the healthy living of citizens and not only by the provision of funds.
“Another key point to note is ownership. Public health is not for the health sector alone as is popularly practiced in counties including Nigeria. The COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps our biggest lesson around this, as the pandemic has affected all spheres of the economy. Nigeria now has a National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) that includes a multi-sectoral approach to prepare for and respond to disease outbreaks.
Every sector must now contribute to ensuring health security and this is not limited to the provision of funds alone. Many of the determinants of health are outside the health sector, and so we must have multi-sectoral leadership and response to public health emergencies”.