Nigeria gets $400m in World Bank financing for Covid-19
Nigeria received approval for $400 million in funding from the World Bank on Friday to purchase and deploy Covid-19 vaccines, the bank said in a statement.
The World Bank's board of directors approved funding, provided through the International Development Association, which it said would enable Africa's most populous country to buy Covid-19 vaccines for 40 million people, about 18 per cent of the population. population, and to support the deployment of vaccines to 110 million people.
In a statement, the bank said the money would allow the government to vaccinate 51 per cent of the population within two years and "avoid the dire consequences of another lockdown that has left an economic toll in its wake where the country continues to suffer" struggles with."
The government said last month that about 20 per cent of workers in Nigeria had lost their jobs as a result of Covid-19.
Nigeria has delivered some five million doses of vaccine to its 200 million citizens, and is in the process of deploying millions of additional doses of Moderna and AstraZeneca injections received through the COVAX scheme aimed at providing vaccines to developing countries.
Source: www.thedailystar.net
