BUA Groups, who is recognized as one of Nigeria’s largest business, has purchased one million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for the country and a promise to buy four million additional doses to be given to Nigerians free.
The vaccine purchase was made and supervised under the BUA-CACOVID-AFREXIM partnership, a private-sector coalition set to help the government in the fight against the novel virus.
The one million doses of AstraZeneca would be delivered by next week, making it the first inoculation that would land the nation since the availability of vaccines globally.
Confirming the free distribution of the vaccine, BUA founder and philanthropist Abdul Samad Rabiu said the vaccines would be given to Nigerians without charging them.
Rabiu praised the President of Afrexim Bank, Dr. Benedict Oramah, for helping in making the purchase process possible and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, for also helping in the coordination of the purchase process through the CACOVID private sector.
“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 manage the pandemic,” Rabiu said.
