It is the most populous country in Africa, but also one of the continent’s most backward in coronavirus vaccination: only about 3% of Nigeria’s population has received two doses of Covid-19 vaccine.
The rate is very low, even compared to other countries in Africa. South Africa, for example, has 24% of the population fully vaccinated. However, information is that Nigeria has a large stockpile of expired vaccines — according to Reuters, that stock could reach a million doses.
Nigeria’s Ministry of Health claims that all expired vaccines have been withdrawn and will be destroyed.
What vaccines were shipped to Nigeria?
Nigeria, like other African countries, struggled to access Covid-19 vaccines in early 2021 because manufacturers prioritized richer nations that had signed agreements in advance.
Many African nations have also trusted Covax’s scheme, which earlier this year struggled to meet its vaccine supply commitments, particularly in Africa.
In recent weeks, however, delivery has improved: the richest countries have started to release their reserves, mainly through Covax. Nigeria received 700,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the UK in August, 800,000 from Canada in September and another 500,000 from France in October.
At the same time, Nigeria received 4 million doses of Moderna and 3.6 million doses of Pfizer.
How long can vaccines be kept?
Doses of AstraZeneca would normally be safe to store for at least six months from the time of manufacture under suitable conditions. But Nigeria’s Ministry of Health says some of the vaccines were delivered close to expiration, posing serious logistical challenges.
“This left us very little time, in some cases just weeks, to use them — with the time to transport them, distribute them and deliver them to users,” said Health Minister Osagie Ehanire.
He also said that occasionally bottlenecks arise, with the arrival of vaccines one after another.
The government now says that overdue doses will be destroyed and “politely refuses all donations that have little time before expiration or those that cannot be delivered on time.”
Have expired vaccines been a problem in other countries?
Other African countries were also left with expired vaccines, including Malawi and South Sudan. The Democratic Republic of Congo returned unused doses to be distributed in other countries to avoid expiration.
In July, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that about 450,000 doses had expired in eight African countries, before they could be administered due to their short shelf life.
WHO and the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recently called for a change in the way vaccine donations are made to avoid wastage. “Having to plan in the short term and guarantee the consumption of doses with a short shelf life exponentially increases the logistical burden of health systems that are already overloaded”, they stated in a note.
The two organizations requested that the donated vaccines have a minimum shelf life of two and a half months before reaching the destination country. And that recipient countries are aware of donations one month before they are delivered. In addition, they expect those doses to be shipped with additional essential supplies, such as syringes.
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