The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has given the nod to administer Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines in Nigeria.
This was announced by President Muhammadu Buhari's aide, Bashir Ahmad on his official Twitter handle.
Oxford/AstraZeneca one of the leading Covid-19 vaccines in the world and most sought after by African countries is now approved for usage in Nigerian by the country's health authority.
President @MBuhari has approved the appointment of Mr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji as the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). He replaces Mr. Waziri Adio who is completing his five-year term today.
— Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) February 18, 2021
Why African countries and Nigeria in particular preferred Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines to others like Pfizer is not far fetched, the country economy condition favours the storage of the vaccine.
While Moderna and Pfizer require temperature ranging from -60°c to -80°c (-76°F to -112°F), Oxford/AstraZeneca requires 2°c to 8°c (36°F to 46°F)
One of the reasons the Who Health Organisation ( WHO) reportedly deprived the country the opportunity to get free COVID-19's vaccines as part of the COVAX programme.
According to reports, the organisation can not afford to see the expensive vaccine given to a country which does not have the facilities to support its storage thereby wasting the expensive doses that could save lives.
With the approval, the problem now is the availablity of the vaccines in the country as the company making the vaccines have been at loggerheads with various organisations and countries as regards meeting demand.
About a month ago, W.H.O bemoaned AstraZeneca doubts on meeting the agreed demand with the company's U.K's manufacturers which supposed to complement worldwide production insisting on local distribution in the first.
Whether Nigeria will engage local producers of vaccines or traditional herbs producers as suggested by some experts is yet to be known.
The country has so far recorded almost 150,000 of confirmed cases of the virus and about 1,789 Covid-19 related deaths, and may need to engage local producers of vaccines or traditional herbs producers as suggested by some experts to meet demand and to cut cost.
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