By Haruna Gimba
The Government of India has donated 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria, according to a statement from the Indian High Commission in Abuja.
A consignment of 100,000 doses of Covishield vaccines, manufactured at the Serum Institute of India, was delivered to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).
The first lot of 3.92 million doses of COVID vaccine under COVAX had reached Nigeria on March 2, 2021.
The Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Abhay Thakur, was quoted in a statement saying that the supply of vaccines to Nigeria was in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment.
Mr Modi had made a commitment the UNGA in September 2020, that “India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help humanity in fighting Covid19.”
He added that these supplies of Made in India vaccines to Nigeria is in keeping with India’s longstanding, age-old and time-tested ties with Nigeria, based on close friendship and deep mutual trust.
India has supplied 61.426 million doses of Made-in-India vaccines to 82 countries.
Health Reporters learnt that India has so far administered about 55 million vaccines for its 1.3 billion populations.
