The African Development Bank, AfDB, has pledged to support African countries to produce COVID-19 vaccines within the continent in order to bridge the gap in supply.
The President of the Bank, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, while speaking on Africa’s Debt and Growth in an interview with CNN ahead of the launch of AfDB’s African Economic Outlook 2021.
The AfDB President noted that the issue of vaccine was a big problem and that the Africa has so far received a mere one per cent of the continent’s needs.
Adesina said, “For us at AfDB, we are looking beyond the current situation. We are looking at medium and also long term. I can’t accept that 1.4 billion people have to be running from pillar to post looking for vaccines.
“We at AfDB have therefore decided that we are going to support Africa to have quality healthcare infrastructure and also make sure that it develops its own pharmaceutical capacity and also produce vaccines in Africa.”
READ ALSO: COVID-19 Vaccine: Ireland Recommends Temporary Suspension Of AstraZeneca Jab
“You know so far 40.6 million vaccines have been delivered in Africa and people can’t even get a shot in the arm. That 40.6 million is only 1 percent of what we need; talk less of having 60 percent of herd immunity. So, we are way off the mark on that.”
While commending stakeholders involved in the financing, procurement and delivery of vaccines, he emphasised the importance of access to vaccines in Africa and the need to have vaccine solidarity.
“The amounts are still in miniscule as far as we are concerned. We need to actually have global solidarity on this; but beyond that, there must also have vaccine justice, making sure that everybody has the vaccine.”
Adesina warned against leaving Africa behind in the distribution of the vaccine and at affordable price.
“If we deal with this pandemic in one part of the world and don’t deal with other parts, we are going back to square one. So, absolutely we must make sure that we ramp up access to vaccine. Africa needs it in quantity, it needs it on time and it needs it on an affordable price,” he added.
He noted the challenging economic situation across the continent leading to loss of jobs, more poverty and hunger.
This, he said, has the tendency of worsening social, economic and political fragility of countries.
