The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, on Wednesday gave an indication that the Federal Government would spend N296bn on COVID-19 vaccinations in 2021 and 2022.

She also confirmed that the supplementary budget for procurement of security equipment and COVID-19 vaccines being prepared by the Federal Government was not ready yet.

She said the government was still waiting for the service chiefs who were expected to aggregate their requests and submit to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), who would in turn forward to her ministry.

Ahmed spoke in an interview with State House correspondents after the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Buhari had on Monday told both the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; as well as the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Kayode Fayemi, that the government would send supplementary budget to the National Assembly to cater for the procurement of equipment and COVID-19 vaccines.

The minister, who said the government was still waiting for the service chiefs, however, expressed the hope that the security estimates would be made available soon.

She said, “For the military hardware, we have met with the service chiefs and the Chief of Defence Staff. They are supposed to aggregate their requests for review amongst themselves and then pass it to Mr President, then it will be sent to us.

“So, we are waiting for the information of the aggregate requirements.”

On the N296bn to be spent on COVID-19 vaccination in 2021 and 2022, the minister said the figure was arrived at after the government dropped the idea of building primary healthcare centres which would have cost N103bn.

She explained, “Sometime in January, the President, based on the request by the Ministry of Health, gave an approval in principle for the Ministry of Health to work with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to prepare and take to the National Assembly a supplementary budget for COVID-19 vaccination.

“The submission that was made to Mr President at that time was in the sum of N399bn, but included in this N399bn was a N103bn for building of primary healthcare centres.

“So, we have worked with and met several times with the ministry and we have agreed to back out from this building of primary health care centres. That can wait till later.

“So, there is still a provision of N296bn for COVID-19 vaccinations for 2021 and 2022.”

Ahmed further disclosed that Nigeria was expecting not less than 43 million COVID-19 doses from donors, adding that officials of the Ministry of Health had been mandated to come up with the total number of vaccine donation being expected to guide government in its plans to buy more vaccines.

She added, “There has been some delays because we expected the ministry to confirm the vaccines donation that Nigeria is expecting. We are expecting a total of not less than 43 million doses of vaccines.

“The ministry is working with partners that are donating these vaccines. So, we see the timelines of the donations and see the gap that the government needs to fill in 2021.”

She added that the ministry had already provided funds to enable them to roll out the four million doses that had been brought already into the country.

FG recovers N49.7bn out of N5.2trn debt

Ahmed also disclosed that the Federal Government has succeeded in recovering N49.7bn out of its N5.2tn debt.

She was speaking on the council’s approval for the second phase of Project Lighthouse, which is a component that is meant to expand the debt recovery capability of the project.

Project Lighthouse, according to the minister, is a data engine that collects, integrates and analyses data from revenue generating agencies in order to create insightful information for improved decision making.

She said Messrs Carter House Consulting, a Nigerian technology company, who had worked with the ministry for three years, won the first phase of the contract in May 2019 and the second phase that was approved on Wednesday was in the sum of N316.5m.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, said the council approved contract for the provision of Airport Management Solution for the international airports in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu in the sum of N10,594,057,618.20 inclusive of 7.5 per cent Value Added Tax.

For the Ministry of Transportation, the council approved contract for the design, manufacture, supply testing and commissioning of one modular tamping machine in the sum of N639,150,932 for the use of the Nigerian Railway Corporation.

It also approved the award of contract for the procurement of one rig-stacker in the sum of N247,062,708 for the benefit of the National Inland Waterway Authority; contract for two power cars to be used on the narrow gauge by the NRC in sum of N1.66bn; and contract for the removal of wrecks along the Badagry Creek from Tin Can Island to Navy Town Lagos State in the sum of N3,587,955,266.40 for the benefit the National Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.