Community acceptance and willingness to pay for hypothetical COVID-19 vaccines in a developing country: a web-based nationwide study in Nigeria

INTRODUCTION: some promising COVID-19 vaccines are soon to be available but getting the African community to accept them may be challenging. This study assessed the acceptability and willingness to pay (WTP) for hypothetical COVID-19 vaccines among Nigerians. METHODS: a cross-sectional, web-based study was conducted among the Nigerian populace. A 20-item questionnaire was used to collect responses through Google form which was shared to consenting participants through two social media platforms. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the sociodemographic factors that were predictive of respondents´ willingness to accept the COVID-19 vaccines. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. RESULTS: six hundred and eighty-nine respondents completed the survey, with 50.5% being females. Exactly 43.3% of respondents reported that they would accept a hypothetical vaccine if it is currently available, 62.1% said they would accept it in the future while 71.1% agreed to accept it if recommended by healthcare providers. A third (31.9%) of respondents accepted the vaccine for their self-protection and half of those not accepting it (51.3%) said they did not want to “be used as an experiment”. Respondents who were of oldest ages (aOR=0.330, 95% CI: 0.141-0.767, p=0.010), of Christian religion (aOR=3.251, 95% CI: 1.301-8.093, p=0.011), and aware of a possible vaccine being made available (aOR=0.636, 95% CI: 0.440-0.920) were significantly more unwilling to accept the vaccine. The median range of WTP was US$1.2-2.5. CONCLUSION: there is a low acceptance in Nigeria for a COVID-19 vaccine if it was available now, but much higher if it is recommended by a healthcare provider. A high proportion of willing respondents indicated a positive WTP for the vaccine.