Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Monday said African nations are trying to establish partnerships to enable the production of COVID-19 vaccines within the continent, reported Bloomberg Quint.
During an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum on Monday, Kagame said African nations are looking out for partners, to start manufacturing vaccines on the continent.
“We have the International Finance Corporation, we have the European Union, we have other partners who are willing to come and do that with our continent,” the Rwandan president said.
Later on Monday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and French President Emmanuel Macron announced the establishment of Africa’s first messenger-RNA coronavirus-vaccine facility.
Kagame said Senegal and Rwanda are among other countries in talks to set up regional vaccine-manufacturing hubs.
Africa has one of the lowest Covid-19 inoculation rates in the world. Less than 1% of the continent’s 1.1 billion inhabitants have received two doses of a vaccine, compared with the U.K. and the U.S., which have fully inoculated about 45% of their people.
“We have already discussed with people who will help with the financing and in a few months I think we should hear a different story,” Kagame said about Rwanda’s vaccine-manufacturing plans.
In related news, the Rwandan government has tightened Covid-19 restrictions to put a curb the rising number of coronavirus cases and mitigate the risk of a severe third wave that is already being experienced in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda.
In a Cabinet meeting on Monday, President Kagame re-imposed tight restrictions including the suspension of all social gatherings. The curfew time has been changed from 9 pm-4 am to 7 pm- 4 am. Movements between Kigali and other provinces in the country have also been prohibited except for medical reasons and other essential services.
“Given the recent rise in Covid-19 cases and transmission rates in the community, the Cabinet has reviewed the existing health measures to contain the further spread of the virus,” read a part of a Cabinet communique released on Monday evening.
