The African Development Bank (AfDB) has said it will invest $3 billion to support Africa’s vaccines manufacturing capacity.

The President of the AfDB, Akinwumi Adesina, disclosed this on Saturday at the 35th African Union Summit, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Mr Adesina said the funds will ensure that the continent’s 1.4 billion people gain greater access to quality healthcare.

He said the continent still needs $484 billion over the next three years to address the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and support economic recovery.

He explained that the most important lesson of the pandemic for Africa is the need to build a defense mechanism against external shocks, especially in healthcare and financial security.

The AfDB boss outlined three strategic priorities for an African healthcare defence system: building quality healthcare infrastructure; developing the continent’s pharmaceutical industry, and increasing the capacity of vaccine manufacturing.

The COVID-19 pandemic has once again highlighted the need for Africa to begin the production of its vaccines.

More than 10.2 billion doses of vaccines have been administered across 184 countries, according to data collected by Bloomberg.

In total, 130 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been given for every 100 people around the world—but the vaccine distribution has been lopsided.

Countries and regions with the highest incomes are getting vaccinated more than 10 times faster than those with the lowest.

In Africa, only 21 out of 54 countries have vaccinated at least 10 per cent of its population.

“About 16 Africa countries have vaccinated less than five per cent and three countries have fully vaccinated less than two per cent,” the World Health Organisation (WHO), Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti. said at a recent conference.

These vaccination statistics underlines how severe the problem of lack of locally-produced vaccine development has caused on the continent.

According to WHO, as of February 3, 2022, Africa had received more than 587 million COVID-19 vaccine doses.

About 58 per cent of vaccines were delivered through the COVAX Facility, 36 per cent from bilateral deals, and six per cent through the Africa Vaccines Acquisition Trust (AVAT) of the African Union.

Ms Moeti said currently, six million people are vaccinated on average every week in Africa, and this number needs to increase to 36 million to reach the 70 per cent target agreed globally.

Meanwhile, African scientists believe that the COVID-19 vaccine challenges of access, unequal distribution and short supplies African countries are currently facing would have been avoided if the continent had invested in local manufacturing of vaccines.

Africa, a continent of over 1.4 billion people, produces only 1 per cent of the vaccines it administers. The remaining 99 per cent are imported, according to WHO.

If no urgent action is taken, health experts believe there would be dire consequences for health security as the continent’s population is estimated to double by 2050.

As a follow up, African countries in 2021 pledged to increase the share of vaccines manufactured in the region from one per cent to 60 per cent by 2040. This includes building factories and bolstering capacity in research and development.

Mr Adesina, during the summit, added that Africa also needs $600 million to $1.3 billion to meet its goal of attaining 60 per cent vaccine production by 2040.

Mr Adesina noted that 11 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated, while 16 per cent has been partially vaccinated.

He said while developed countries have moved to booster shots, “Africa is still struggling with basic shots”.

“Your Excellencies, we must learn from this experience. Africa can no longer outsource the security of the lives of its 1.4 billion people to the benevolence of others,” he said.

He commended the leadership efforts of the African Union and state authorities in dealing with the pandemic.

Rtn. Victor Ojelabi

Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.