.Says Nigeria does not need N150b to purchase COVID-19 vaccine
By Valentine Amanze, Online Editor
The Nigerian government’s effort o lift people out of poverty through cash transfer strategies will not work.
The Vice Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2019 elections, Mr. Peter Obi, gave the verdict on Arise Television yesterday.
He said that the planned N5,000 disbursement to 24 million people for a period of six months would not achieve the desired results of pulling people out of poverty.
He argued that for one to be classified as living in poverty, the person would be earning $1.9 or less per day, which is approximately N800.
According to him, the N800 when multiplied by 30 days amounts to N24,000, thus giving someone N5,000 a month, when he needs at least N24,000 to survive, would have little or no effect, talk more of pulling them out of poverty.
His words: “Now if you divide N5,000 with N400 exchange rate, it will give you $12.50. When you divide $12.50 by 30 days, it gives you 42 cents. So by sharing N5.000 per month to them, you are only giving them about 20% of the $1.9 they require to live above poverty.
“Worse still, you are only paying them the money for six months.
“Any government that desires to pull its people out of poverty should adopt a properly articulated fiscal and monetary stimulus to support micro, small, medium entreprises and also provide jobs that will pay people at least N25,000 per month.”
On his experience in Bangladesh, where some aggressive poverty eradication strategies worked well, Obi said, “In 2008, I travelled to Bangladesh, with a team of professionals, where we studied poverty eradication strategies as employed by their government. We had encounter with the locals in rural areas, and we saw first hand the techniques they employed to pull their people out of poverty.
“They had micro credit facilities at the rural level, supervised by the government but driven by the private sector.
“These credit institutions support the locals in their trades and agricultural endeavours. The government also steps in to buy whatever is produced by the rural residents, which are in turn exported.
“The consequesnce of this is that as of 2008 when we were there, the per capita income of Bangladesh was $635. Today, after 12 years of aggressive poverty eradication, their per capita income is $1900.
“Their literacy rate was 58% in the same 2008, today they are at 75%. Their human development index (HDI) has also moved from low to medium.
“If you compare Bangladesh with Nigeria, in the year 2008, our per capita income was $2240, while today, after 12 years, it is $2220. So our per capita income, instead of growing, reduced after 12 years. This is because there has not been a well articulated, implementable and measurable policies that can take people out of poverty.”
The former covernor of Anambra State also said that apart from Bangladesh, there were many other countries who have followed that same poverty eradication model and moved their citizens out of poverty.
He said that it would be wrong for the Federal Government of Nigeria to simply decide to pay 24 million people N5,000 each for six months, hoping that it would be enough to pull them out of poverty.
Obi said that what was more worrisome about the whole cash transfer project was the lack of transparency and uncertainty that has characterised the whole process.
He however urged the government to invest in critical areas of development if they truly desire to move people out of poverty.
He said that supporting small businesses with fiscal and monetary stimuli would be more effective in eradicating poverty in the country.
On COVID-19, Obi said that Nigeria did not need more than N150 billion to procure the vaccine.
Osagie Ehanire, the minister of Health, said in December 2020 that the federal government needed about N400 billion for COVID-19 vaccines.
According to Ehanire, N400 billion would be required to vaccinate 70 percent of Nigeria’s over 200 million population, at $8 per person.
But Obi said that here were issues of transparency regarding the procurement of vaccines.
The ex-governor said, “Nigeria would not have needed to spend so much in procuring vaccines if its National Vaccine Production Facility was operational.
“The issue of vaccine is one that I feel a sense of pain. Nigeria as a country in 1940 established what we called National Vaccine Production Facility domiciled in Yaba, and that was able to produce virtually all the vaccines we used in the days of smallpox, yellow fever, and that facility was shut down in 1991 to be refurbished and upgraded. There was nothing wrong with it.
“And till today that has been the case deliberately so that people can import vaccines and sell to the government.
“Now I hear that we are looking for N400 billion. Well, I am at loss. Our budget this year for health is N547 billion. I don’t know if they are going to take this vaccine procurement from it, because if they do, we are left with N147 billion.
“For the vaccine procurement also, we need to have transparency in the procurement. Today, vaccine in India costs between $2 25 cents to $3. That is an average of $2.75 and if you say you are going to use N400 billion, that is about $1 billion. If you divide $1 billion by $2.75cents each, that is about 350 million doses, which is far in excess of what we need.
“World Health Organisation said if you can inject 70 percent of your population, that’s it. 70 percent of Nigeria is about 140 million so we are actually looking for 140 million doses. Considering that some other people are going to give us some free, we actually don’t need more than 120 million. But even if we’re buying 140 million, we just need about three hundred and eighty-something million dollars which is about N150 billion to buy it.
“If they have a N400bn budget to buy the vaccine, my suggestion, they don’t need to award contracts in this vaccine, let them just call Serum Institute in India and plead with them. I am sure they will even give us discount. If they want I can go for the negotiation. It won’t cost more than $2 each,” Obi said.