Nigerian govt plans supplementary budget for procurement of COVID-19 vaccines

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said on Thursday the Federal Government would prepare a supplementary budget to take care of the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination of Nigerians.

The minister, who disclosed this at the inaugural State House media briefing held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the supplementary budget would be prepared in March and sent to the National Assembly for consideration and approval.

She said the country would receive its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines next week.

Ahmed also disagreed with some Nigerians on the level of borrowing by the federal government.

The minister said: “There will be a supplementary budget, the first one will be in March relating the COVID-19 pandemic but we will also have a mid-year review like we did last year of the budget.

“If at the time we do the review and there is a need to go back to do any amendment for a supplementary budget, we will take that decision. If not, we will just report the review.

READ ALSO: ‘Expect delivery of COVID-19 vaccines latest by March,’ Health minister tells Nigerians

“We have a provision in the 2021 budget for immunisation. We are already releasing money to the health authorities to start operation in the first batch of vaccines that will arrive in the country in one week.

“But what we have in the budget is not enough, so we are working with the health authorities to provide a plan that will be taken to the President for approval and to be taken to the National Assembly as a supplementary budget specifically for COVID -19 vaccination.”

“There is a lot of sensitivity in Nigeria about the level of borrowing by the government and it is not misplaced.

“I said earlier that the level of borrowing is not unreasonable, it is not high. The problem we have is that of revenue. So, what we need to do is to increase revenue to be able to enhance our debt to GDP obligation capacity.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now