The BUA Group on Tuesday insisted that it had acquired one million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, saying a statement by the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID), disowning the acquisition was shocking.
CACOVID had denied BUA’s earlier claim on the purchase of vaccines for Nigerians, emphasising that no individual had the capacity to strike such a deal.
But the BUA Group faulted the CACOVID’s denial.
It explained that at the CACOVID steering committee meeting on February 8, 2021, members were informed by the CBN that CACOVID had been given the opportunity through the Afrexim platform to access and pay for one million doses.
According to a statement by BUA, there was no agreement reached and despite members being offered the opportunity to donate funds towards procuring the doses, no member offered.
“Thereafter BUA offered to pay for the one million doses at the agreed rate of US$3.45 per dose, totalling US$3,450,000,000.00, which translates to N1.311bn.’’
The firm said the payment was made after the meeting and BUA transferred the money to the CBN.
“However, with this development by the CACOVID operations committee, we now have a just cause to believe that some members of CACOVID were not happy that BUA took this initiative in the interest of Nigeria.
“BUA’s gesture is in good faith, as it has done with its interventions throughout the pandemic.
“We find this press release by CACOVID to be very petty and unbecoming of seemingly serious corporate citizens because it is tantamount to playing politics, with the lives of Nigerians. This is no time for politics,” the statement added.
