The Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Tuesday said it is willing to have strategic partnerships with industry, lenders, and philanthropic groups to boost COVID-19 vaccination in the African continent, reported CGTN Africa.
John Nkengasong, director of Africa CDC, said the continent’s ability to achieve a 60 percent inoculation target against COVID-19 by next year depends on harnessing resources and expertise from the private sector and foundations.
“We need partnerships to expand access to COVID-19 vaccines in Africa,” Nkengasong said during the virtual launch of a partnership between the African Union (AU), Africa CDC, and Mastercard Foundation aiming at ramping up vaccination against the virus in the continent.
Funded by the Mastercard Foundation, the Saving Lives and Livelihoods Initiative aims to secure vaccine jabs for more than 50 million people and help develop vaccine manufacturing in African countries.
The Africa CDC- Mastercard Foundation partnership will invest $1.3 billion over the next three years to acquire and deliver vaccines across the continent.
The announcement comes amid growing global concern over Covid-19 vaccine inequality.
On Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that he hoped the African continent’s vaccine manufacturing sites would be up and running by the end of 2021.
“Sharing vaccines now is essential for ending the acute phase of the pandemic. But it’s also clear that in an emergency, low-income countries cannot rely solely on imports of vaccines from wealthier nations,” he said at a news briefing.
The African Union is planning to vaccinate at least 60% of its population, approximately 750 million people, by the end of 2022. Currently, less than 2% of Africans have received at least one Covid-19 shot due to a shortage of vaccine doses linked to global supply challenges and technical hiccups, according to the Africa CDC press release.
