- Head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), John Nkengasong, in his article in the science journal Nature, has said that Africa may be able to secure the total of 1.5 billion vaccine doses needed to reach 60 per cent of the continent’s 1.3 billion people by October 2021.
- According to the Pan-African multilateral trade finance institution Afreximbank, Africa will require $9 billion to vaccinate 780 million people over the course of two years
Head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), John Nkengasong, in his article in the science journal Nature, has said that Africa may be able to secure the total 1.5 billion vaccine doses needed to reach 60 per cent of the continent’s 1.3 billion people by October 2021.
According to the Pan-African multilateral trade finance institution Afreximbank , Africa will require $9 billion to vaccinate 780 million people over the course of two years. The estimate covers the cost of the vaccines and administering two doses of the vaccines to 60 per cent of the population. The source of funding will include donors, country self-financing, the World Bank, and Afreximbank, said Prof Benedict Oramah, president of the Afreximbank.
The funding, can be met by countries by raising $0.5 billion, the World Bank gives $4billion ( part of the $12 billion financing it announced) and $1.8billion which is equivalent to the vaccine dosage the continent will receive to immunise 20 per cent of the population with zero co-payment. The remaining $2.8 billion will be financed by Afreximbank.
This was revealed by Prof Oramah while addressing a virtual conference organised by the Africa CDC to discuss a framework for fair, equitable, and timely allocation of Covid-19 vaccines in Africa. Prof Oramah recommended a “whole-of-Africa” approach for procurement making it easier to secure deals with manufacturers and ensure cost-effective financing.It is reported that at least 47 African countries have submitted requests to the global vaccine distribution scheme co-led by the WHO.
Meanwhile, some African countries like Morocco and Egypt have gone ahead to secure vaccines from China-based Sinopharm. Egypt last week received the second batch of Sinopharm’s Covid-19 vaccine of 50,000 doses. Morocco is also gearing up for an ambitious programme of vaccinating 80 percent of its adults starting this month .
In the East African region, Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya have announced that they had applied for doses from AstraZeneca/Oxford’s AZD1222 vaccine.
