The federal government of Nigeria is proposing to spend the sum of N396 billion for the COVID-19 vaccination in 2021 and 2022 according to the country’s Minister of Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.

The Minister made this known on Wednesday after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting, which was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

She noted that the figure may significantly reduce as the Federal Government receives more donations of the vaccines from the private sector.

She further explained that the Ministry of Health is working on details of the gap that the Federal Government will be required to fill in the vaccination exercise.

According to her, the size of the proposed supplementary budget agreed by the executive and legislative arm is yet to be resolved, because the Ministry of Defence and Health, are yet to provide details of the military hardware requirement.

Ahmed had earlier in February said a supplementary budget will be needed to cover the cost of COVID-19 vaccinations, for which no provision was made in the 2021 finance bill adopted in December.

The Federal Government has said it plans to inoculate 40% of Nigeria’s population this year and another 30% in 2022.

“There will be a supplementary budget, the first one will be in March relating to the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said.

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This revelation was contained in the NBS’s GDP report.

The retreat ends a three-year trend of low but positive real growth rates recorded since the national economy emerged from recession in 2017.

According to the NBS, the decline was “largely attributable to significantly lower levels of both domestic and international economic activity during the quarter, which resulted from nationwide shutdown efforts aimed at containing the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Nigeria essentially shut down its economy in March – restricting inter-state travel, closing worship centres, schools and markets – as parts of efforts to keep the spread of the novel coronavirus under control.

“The efforts, led by both the Federal and State governments, evolved over the course of the quarter and persisted throughout,” the NBS said.

The oil sector, which accounts for a large percentage of the country’s revenues, recorded negative growth of 6.63 percent, “indicating a decrease of –13.80% points relative to the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2019.”

The non-oil sector also declined by 6.05% in real terms during the second quarter.

“It was the first decline in real non-oil GDP growth rate since Q3 2017,” the NBS said.

Not a surprise

The economy’s decline did not come as a surprise to many as the coronavirus pandemic has gutted economic productivity across the world.

The report will be “negative,” Presidential aide, Tolu Ogunlesi, tweeted on Sunday. “Tomorrow we find out to what degree.”

The third-quarter results have also been projected to be negative, which will officially land the economy in a recession.

A recession is only declared after two consecutive quarterly contractions.

In May, Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, predicted that the country was heading towards a recession.

“On the economy, COVID-19 has resulted in the collapse in oil prices,” she said after a National Economic Summit meeting. “This will impact negatively, and the impact has already started showing on the federation’s revenues and on the foreign exchange earnings.”

Source: Channels TV

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Mrs Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance announced this at the end of the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in Abuja.

The minister stressed that the gross statutory revenue for the month is N569.3 billion naira which is N57.9 billion less than the N627.14 billion shared in August.

The minister, who presided over the FAAC meeting, noted the need for the three tiers of government to save.

She also challenged members of the committee to maintain transparency and instil a saving culture for the rainy day in various states.

The next FAAC meeting is expected to hold during the National Council of Finance and Economic Development Conference in Kaduna, scheduled for Wednesday, November 28.

The report of the Committee on the Excess Crude Account is expected to be presented at the meeting.

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