Foods and infrastructure conglomerates with headquarters in Nigeria, BUA Group, said it has procured one million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for Nigeria.
The procurement, the company said in a statement to Platforms Africa, was made through the AFREXIM vaccine programme in partnership with CACOVID.
The doses, expected to be delivered by next week. The delivery will be the first in Nigeria since the COVID-19 vaccines became available.
The vaccine, BUA said in a statement by O’tega Ogra, Group Head, Corporate Communications, would be distributed free to Nigerians.
Speaking on this development, philanthropist and founder of BUA, Abdul Samad Rabiu, thanked the President of the Afrexim Bank, Benedict Oramah for making the purchase possible and the Nigerian Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, for coordinating the process through the CACOVID private sector partnership.
According to him, “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.
“In addition to this, BUA is committing to purchase five million doses for Nigeria as soon as they become available through this same arrangement.”
This development effectively pushes Africa’s most populous nation to the front of the queue in vaccine procurement.
