By BUA Group says it has purchased one million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for Nigeria, set to be delivered next week.
This purchase was done through the AfreximBank vaccine programme in partnership with Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID).
The vaccines will be the first set of COVID-19 vaccines to arrive Nigeria, making BUA the first company in the country to take such a bold step to aid the ongoing fight against the pandemic.
In a statement, BUA said the vaccines will be distributed to Nigerians at no cost.
According to Abdul Samad Rabiu, founder of BUA, this development was made possible all thanks to Benedict Oramah, president of the AfreximBank and Godwin Emefiele, governor of Central Bank of Nigeria who coordinated the process through CACOVID.
He said: “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 5 million doses for Nigeria as soon as they become available through this same arrangement.”
It would be recalled that the company on March 26, 2020 announced a donation of N1bn cash through the BUA Foundation to strengthen national response to fight COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
Also, BUA made another N3.3billion donation to support the fight against the novel virus in Kano and Lagos States as well as the Presidential Task Force.
