Nigeria launched a new malaria vaccine on Thursday that will be freely administered to recipients, its health minister said, marking a significant milestone in its fight against the deadly disease.

The launch makes the country one of the first in the world to back the new R21 vaccine, developed by scientists at Oxford University and made by the Serum Institute of India and Novavax.

The vaccine was provisionally approved by Nigeria's medicines regulator in April last year.

Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate said Nigeria had received 846 200 doses of the vaccine, procured in partnership with global vaccine group Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and UNICEF. A balance of 153 800 more doses is expected on October 26 to make it a million.

"The Vaccines are not enough, so in the context that they are not enough but free, I want to encourage all well-meaning Nigerians to take advantage of the limited availability and make their wards available to be administered and protected," Pate told reporters at the launch in the capital Abuja.

The roll out will start with two pilot states of Kebbi in the north and Bayelsa on the coast, ahead of a national roll out, Pate said.

Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease, kills more than 600 000 people each year, most of them African babies and children.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, is the world's worst-affected country with 31% of global deaths from malaria, according to a 2023 World Health Organization report.