American businessman, Bill Gates, has advised the Nigerian government to consider fixing the poor health sector in the country rather than spending money on buying COVID-19 vaccines.
Speaking visually with newsmen on Tuesday, January 26, the billionaire urged the government against diverting its limited health fund into trying to pay a high price for COVID-19 vaccines.
“I’m an advocate for the government to have more resources and prioritise health. Obviously, I’m not a voter in Nigeria, so Nigeria can decide that independently. So my advice is that the primary healthcare system is what’s super important and that with those finite resources, you have to prioritise expenditure.
“I mean, the deaths from the deficits and primary healthcare are dramatically higher every year than the total deaths going on in Africa from this pandemic, and so I hope it causes everyone in society to look at these health issues.
“There should be close to 100% coverage of all the vaccines and you need to have those very functional primary healthcare systems because the number of lives you can save is absolutely huge,” he said.