By Chioma  Obinna

 The Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund, NSSF, and the international advocacy organisation, Global Citizen, will at the Global Citizen Live event to call on world leaders, corporate organisations, and foundations to address critical issues affecting the world.

Top of which is the COVID-19 pandemic and the issues bordering on vaccine equity and vaccine hesitancy.

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

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 mitigating the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Nigerians.

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

Commenting,  the Vice Chairman of Global Citizen Nigeria., Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede said: “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%.

“In Nigeria, we are way below that with only about 1 percent of the populace having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines.”

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

 He added that the Global Citizen Live event presents the opportunity to tell the impact story and get the support they need to end the 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 in September, before the G20 Meeting in October and COP26 Meeting in November, these events focus on interconnected issues: vaccine equity, climate change, and famine.

Vanguard News Nigeria