Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund Partners Global Citizen to Ensure Vaccine Equity

Rebecca Ejifoma

The Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund (NSSF or the Fund), has partnered Global Citizen, at the Global Citizen Live event to call on world leaders, corporate organisations, and foundations on COVID-19 Pandemic, vaccine equity, and vaccine hesitancy.

As an advocate for impact, the NSSF is one of the partner institutions headlining the event alongside Global Citizen, an international advocacy organisation.

Established as a partnership between Global Citizen and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), the NSSF is an innovative platform for resource mobilisation primarily created to complement government’s efforts to mitigate the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Nigerians.

The Fund has set its strategic priority for 2021/2022 to ensure that one million Nigerians are vaccinated against COVID-19 and is partnering Global Citizen to amplify this call on global organisations and world leaders to address the issues of equitable distribution of and education about COVID-19 with the urgency it deserves.

The Vice Chairman of Global Citizen Nigeria, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede,
“There is only one way of dealing with this pandemic, which is the vaccines and as we well know, to get the type of herd immunity that makes a nation safe, there is a minimum percentage of the population that needs to be covered, typically well above 60 per cent.

“In Nigeria, we are way below that with only about one per cent of the populace having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines.”

According to him, considering the scary statistics and the need to act fast to save lives, we are putting necessary mechanisms in place to enable us to mobilise the required resources to get at least one million Nigerians vaccinated before the end of 2022.

He further added, “The Global Citizen Live event affords us the opportunity to tell our impact story and get the support we need to end this pandemic in the quickest time possible. The Global Citizen Live is a Historic 24-Hour Broadcast Spanning Six Continents and will air across ABC, ABC News Live, BBC, FX, iHeartRadio, Hulu, YouTube, TIME, Twitter, and more.

“Artistes will help rally citizens in demanding that governments, major corporations, and philanthropists work together to defeat poverty and defend the planet by focusing on the most urgent, interrelated threats hitting those in poverty the hardest – climate change, vaccine equity, and famine.”

Coinciding with the UN General Assembly (September) before the G20 Meeting (Oct) and COP26 Meeting (Nov), these events focus on interconnected issues: vaccine equity, climate change, and famine.

Meanwhile, the NSSF is a private-sector led institution born out of a partnership between the Global Citizen (GC) and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) to complement efforts in combating the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic through fundraising to address three core COVID-19 response areas: supporting the most vulnerable, strengthening health care systems and re-skilling of Nigerian youth for The New Nigeria.

The Institution believes that everyone should have access to quality and affordable healthcare services when they need it, young Nigerians should be enabled with opportunities for self-empowerment and well-skilled for a post-COVID era and that the most vulnerable, disadvantaged, and marginalised groups in Nigeria should not be left behind.