CURRENTLY Africa is at the mercy of European, Chinese, Russian and American vaccine manufacturers and governments’ donations in its quest to reach herd immunity against Covid-19.
This is because Africa is currently not producing any of its own vaccines, with minimal research being conducted locally on Covid-19.
For these reasons, the African Development Bank (AfDB) will commit US$3 billion to the development of an African pharmaceuticals industry as part of the African Union’s vaccine strategy.
AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina on Saturday announced this while addressing leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) at a special summit in Accra, Ghana.
Adesina urged regional leaders to focus on vaccine production and access for the African continent as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to claim lives and hurt economies and livelihoods.
“Africa needs solutions to help it navigate through the very challenging times posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The rebound will depend on access to vaccines,” Adesina said.
African leaders and leaders in other developing nations have called out the World Health Organisation’s unequal distribution of approved vaccines.
Early this year, president Hage Geingob expressed his dissatisfaction over the Covax facility, labelling the unequal distribution as “Covid-19 apartheid”.
However, Adesina said: “Africa should not be begging for vaccines.”
He told the Ecowas leaders that Africa should be producing vaccines as opposed to begging and waiting for donations.
Adesina publicly emphasised the need to rapidly build a healthcare defence system for the continent in order to tackle Covid-19 and future pandemics.
Adesina said the recent decision by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to issue special drawing rights (SDRs) provides a real opportunity to rebuild better and greener, and to tackle Africa’s debt challenges more decisively.
Namibia has recently received an IMF loan, which is, however, not to fund vaccine production, but rather the national budget with its predetermined priorities.
The G7 leaders’ summit last week gave allocating US$100 billion of SDRs to Africa the green light.
“This will open the way for much-needed relief for Africa,” Adesina said.
African leaders at a summit in Paris in May have called for the AfDB to receive SDRs on behalf of African countries, and to use them to lend to African development banks.
Adesina said it would be important to allocate some of this to buying down Africa’s “very expensive debt” owed to private creditors.
He also proposed an African Financial Stability Mechanism to protect the continent against external shocks, saying such a mechanism was critical.
“It will require that we mutualise our resources, avoid regional spillover effects, regionalise fiscal policy rules, develop homegrown reforms and debt-resolution approaches, and provide a regional safety net that will complement the global safety net of the International Monetary Fund,” he said.
The Namibian