Nigeria urges fairer pandemic financing and equitable vaccine access at UN high-level meeting

# What happened Nigeria used a United Nations high-level meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR) to press the international community on two connected issues: who can get pandemic preparedness financing, and how vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics are shared during health emergencies.

# Who spoke Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare Iziaq Salako delivered Nigeria's national statement on behalf of President Bola Tinubu at the UN headquarters in New York.

# Core demands Nigeria's statement made two concrete requests:

• Pandemic financing must be more accessible to low- and middle-income countries. Nigeria asked that the structures and rules for funding be changed so those countries can obtain the money they need for preparedness and response.

• Equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. Nigeria urged that supplies and technologies needed in future pandemics be distributed fairly rather than allocated primarily by countries' ability to pay.

# Why Nigeria framed the issue this way The statement links financing access to the ability of lower-income countries to prepare for and respond to outbreaks. If funding is hard to obtain, countries will struggle to buy or produce vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics when they are needed most. Nigeria framed its appeal as a call for a global system that enables more consistent access to these tools for countries with constrained finances.

# Where this was delivered The remarks were made at a UN high-level meeting on PPPR held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The statement represented Nigeria at that global forum.

# What the demands mean in practice rules, simplifying application processes, or designing funding vehicles that respond faster to emerging threats. Calling for equitable access to countermeasures implies support for distribution approaches based on need or population rather than purchasing power. The article reports the demands but does not list specific policy proposals or donor commitments.

# Related coverage and context

# Bottom line Nigeria publicly pressed the international community at the UN to restructure pandemic preparedness financing to be more reachable for low- and middle-income countries and to guarantee fair access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics during global health emergencies. The intervention was delivered by Minister Iziaq Salako on behalf of President Bola Tinubu.