NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 18 – The African Union has resolved that by 2040, 60 percent of vaccines used in Africa will be produced locally.
While attending a meeting on vaccine manufacturing in Africa organized by the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, President William Ruto highlighted the need for African countries to manufacture vaccines to help stop various disease pandemics.
President Ruto revealed that most African countries got badly affected particularly during the Covid 19 pandemic witnessed globally where the Covid vaccines were on higher demand.
“The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the dire state of Africa’s pharmaceutical manufacturing, including that of vaccines. We were the last continent to access Covid-19 vaccines, and suffered greatly from ‘vaccine nationalism’,” He said.
The head of state noted that the African continent has the research capacity to manufacture vaccines.
“This is underpinned by our solid research capacity in vaccines. Kenya, for instance, participated in the Covid-19 vaccine trials,” revealed Ruto.
The meeting on vaccine manufacturing in Africa with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia was also attended by various heads of states including President Mohamed al-Menfi (Libya) and Brahim Ghali (Sahrawi).
Others were Ahmed Hachani, Tunisia Prime Minister, IVI Director general Jerome Kim and Jean Kaseya, Director general of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa-CDC).
