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Spain says it has donated 4.4 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the Federal Government of Nigeria towards curtailing the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).
This is contained in a statement by the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria titled “No one will be safe until we are all safe” in Abuja on Wednesday.
The embassy said that the donation was in line with the Spainsh government’s unconditional defence of fair, equitable, and universal access to vaccines against COVID-19.
The mission explained that the ceremony to hand over the vaccines took place on the premises of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), with the support of UNICEF.
According to the embassy, the donation makes Spain the third donor of COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria.
It said the donation was the largest Spain had given to a single country in Africa so far.
The donation also positions Spain as the seventh-largest donor of vaccines in the world, with 70 million doses delivered so far.
“Spain is fully committed to multilateral efforts.
“Consequently, this donation, and more than 90 per cent of Spanish donations, has been made through the COVAX mechanism.
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“Additionally, this donation constitutes one more action of “Team Europe” in Nigeria, integrated by the EU and its member states.
“Altogether, the EU and EU countries have donated 30 million vaccines to Nigeria so far.”
The embassy said that at the handover ceremony, Dr Faisal Shuaib, the Chief Executive Officer of NPHCDA had urged Nigerian citizens to ensure that they received the jabs.
The embassy further said that the Spanish Ambassador, Juan Sell, underscored the importance of reaching every Nigerian citizen and every remote corner of the world if the pandemic were to be contained.
“We have to strengthen primary health systems and we must improve global mechanisms for technology transfer to decentralise the production of health products in all regions, particularly in Africa.
“In that sense, the President of the government of Spain announced at the recent Global Summit against COVID-19 that Spain will donate 300 million dollars for an additional 30 million COVID-19 vaccines and for the strengthening of public health systems.
“This will be done through projects related to COVID-19, which will be implemented by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation.
“Spain has also joined the World Health Organisation’s COVID-19 Technology Access Group and is part of the Team Europe initiative on manufacturing and access to vaccines that the Ambassador of the EU to Nigeria presented.
“This initiative will help create an enabling environment for local vaccine manufacturing in Africa and tackle barriers on both supply and demand sides, backed by 1 billion euros from the EU budget and the European development finance institutions such as the European Investment Bank (EIB).”
