The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, said the federal government would draw a supplementary budget in March to cover the cost of COVID-19 vaccinations.

“There will be a supplementary budget. The first one will be in March relating to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ms. Ahmed revealed to journalists on Thursday.

The minister added that the government was working alongside health authorities on a plan to be approved by the president and lawmakers.

The government did not include the buying and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in its N13.6 trillion 2021 budget, the highest in the nation’s history. 

Last week, health minister Osagie Ehanire told journalists in Lagos that the country expected COVID-19 vaccines to arrive soon. UNICEF had disclosed that 16 million doses of the Covax vaccine would get to Nigeria, though it did not provide a timeline. 

Nigeria plans to inoculate 40 percent of its 200 million population this year and another 30 percent in 2022. 

Saturday will make it a year since Nigeria confirmed its index COVID-19 case.

The country currently has 154,476 confirmed cases and 1,891 deaths, according to data provided by the NCDC.