Out of the 55 nations in Africa, 34 are unlisted in the World Bank’s $12 billion support for vaccination programmes across a continent that has not been able to keep pace with developed nations’ rollouts.
The money from World Bank, which will be in the form of grants or on “highly concessional terms,” covers only 21 African countries, David Malpass, President of the World Bank, said in a statement following a January 27 virtual meeting on the Africa COVID- 19 vaccine financing and deployment strategy.
According to Bloomberg quoting Malpass, saying that: “We’re preparing emergency vaccine financing projects in 21 countries in Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Niger, Mozambique, Tunisia, Eswatini and Cabo Verde to name a few. The funds are available now.”
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The cost of vaccinating 60 percent of Africa’s 1.3 billion people would be between $10 billion and $15 billion, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control.
The continent, with 55 nation members of African union, has secured 36 per cent of its vaccine needs, with 25 per cent of the doses to come from the Covax initiative and 11percent from a separate African Union programme Africa’s CDC said. But it’s far behind the rest of the world in terms of acquisition and inoculations, with richer nations having secured the scarce shots early.
The 55 States (September 2018, AU) – Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau. Kenya, the Kingdom of Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Kingdom of Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
“Since the outbreak of COVID- 19, the bank has committed $25 billion to African countries to support their health and economic recovery, and we expect to commit an additional $15 billion by June,” Malpass said.
“We urge leaders of African countries to move quickly to secure vaccinations for their populations, and to avail themselves of the financing available from us.”
