Ex-Minister Of Finance, Okonjo-Iweala Calls Nigeria A Middle-Income Country

Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has listed Nigeria among poor and lower-middle-income countries.

Okonjo-Iweal who was named as the Forbes Africa Person of the Year 2020 on Tuesday, December 1, stated this while revealing when African countries including Nigeria will get access to COVID-19 vaccines.

Following a closed-door meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama in Abuja earlier, Okonjo-Iweala assured that Nigeria and other African countries will get access to COVID-19 vaccines from the end of January 2021 through the first quarter of 2021.

“As long as one person has it in the world, no one is safe. And that is why poorer countries, lower-middle-income countries like Nigeria, need to get it as quickly as possible,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs quoted the Okonjo-Iweala as saying.

The former minister revealed that the Pfizer vaccine and AstraZeneca were presently being negotiated so those poor countries would not have to be in a long wait behind rich countries.

Okonjo-Iweala further stated that Nigeria was blessed for not having the same incidence rate of COVID-19 as other continents.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) on Wednesday evening, 9th December 2020, confirmed 474 new cases of Coronavirus disease infection in Nigeria, Naija News reports.