· The Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) on behalf of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has launched the COVID-19 vaccines pre-order programme for all African Union Member States.
· Afreximbank will facilitate payments by providing advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to US$2 billion to the manufacturers on behalf of the Member States.
The African Union Chairperson, President Cyril Ramaphosa on the 14th of January 2021 announced that the African Union has secured a provisional 270 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for Africa through its COVID-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT). Subsequently, the Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) on behalf of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has launched the COVID-19 vaccines pre-order programme for all African Union Member States. Afreximbank will provide advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to US$2 billion to the manufacturers on behalf of the Member States and facilitate the payments.
A provisional 270 million COVID-19 vaccines doses from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca has been procured by AVATT. AMSP – a single-source platform enabling faster, more transparent and cost-effective access to COVID-19 supplies – has opened pre-orders this week, offering an equitable access of COVID-19 vaccines doses for 55 African Union member states.
African Union Special Envoy Strive Masiyiwa remarked that for the first time in history, Africa has secured access to millions of vaccine doses in the middle of a pandemic as most of the Western countries. However, she admitted that still, the continent will face a huge shortage of the vaccine that has prompted AU to plan a fair allocation and timely and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines across the continent.
Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank ) added that the vaccine financing facility builds on the success of its Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA) to open access to COVID 19 vaccines to African states based on a whole-of-Africa approach favoured by the African Union. Also by giving advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to US$2 billion to vaccine manufacturers, Afreximbank ensures that the African States are able to rapidly access COVID-19 vaccines, at competitive prices and in a timely manner.
