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Business news for Friday, January 22, 2021
Source: africacdc.com
2021-01-22
Availability of the vaccine will help restore calm to the economy
The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Wednesday praised the African Export-Import Bank for filling the financial gap in access to the COVID-19 vaccine in Africa.
The remarks were made by John Nkengasong, Africa CDC Director, following the announcement that the African Export-Import Bank will facilitate payments by providing advance purchase commitment guarantees of up to US $ 2 billion to manufacturers on behalf of the Union. African (AU) members.
“The biggest challenges to accessing the COVID-19 vaccine in Africa have been the financing of vaccines and the logistics of large-scale vaccination, but we are pleased that this gap is being filled by the African Bank’s funding mechanism. Exports and Imports, “said John Nkengasong. , Director of Africa CDC.
“The critical decision now is how to get started so that once we get started there will be no disruption, and this is where the Africa Medical Supply Platform (AMSP) will play a huge role,” said the CDC Africa Director.
On Tuesday, the Africa CDC had announced the start of a COVID-19 vaccine pre-order program for all AU members.
The AMSP move, on behalf of the Africa CDC, came a week after the announcement of the President of South Africa and President of the African Union (AU) Cyril Ramaphosa on January 14 that the AU has secured a COVID -19 provisional of 270 million. vaccine doses for Africa through its African COVID-19 Vaccine Procurement Task Force (AVATT).
The AMSP, to support vaccination operations, has also launched a new category of vaccine accessories that will help member states to purchase products such as ultra low temperature freezers, personal protective equipment, cotton rolls, syringes and needles.
While AVATT has secured an interim dose of 270 million COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson and AstraZeneca, AMSP, the single-source platform that enables faster, more transparent and cost-effective access to COVID-19 supplies , you have opened the pre-order program.
According to the Africa CDC, the initiative provides equitable access to COVID-19 vaccine doses for AU members.
The Chairman and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export-Import Bank, Benedict Oramah, also highlighted that the Afrexim Bank is proud to expand its support to African economies in their quest to contain the pandemic.
