The African Union has secured a provisional 270 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for African union members.

The chairperson of the African Union, President Cyril Ramaphosa, has secured a provisional 270 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for Africa through its COVID-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), the Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP), on behalf of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

The African Union has commenced the COVID-19 vaccines pre-order programme for all African Union Member States and it is expected that Afreximbank will facilitate payments by providing advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to US$2 billion to the manufacturers on behalf of the member states.

According to African Union Special Envoy, Strive Masiyiwa “These are historical times. For the first time in history, Africa has secured access to millions of vaccine doses in the middle of a pandemic as most of Western countries.

According to him, there is still a huge shortage of vaccine doses and that is why this continental collaboration has designed a fair allocation coupled with timely and equitable access of COVID-19 vaccines across the continent.”

Prof. Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export-Import Bank has stated that Afreximbank is proud to expand its support to African economies in their bid to contain the pandemic.

“Our vaccine financing facility builds on the success of our Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA) to open access to COVID 19 vaccines to African states based on a whole-of-Africa approach favoured by the African Union” he stressed.

He mentioned that by providing advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to US$2 billion to candidate vaccine manufacturers, Afreximbank will ensure that African States are able to rapidly access COVID-19 vaccines, at competitive prices and in a timely manner thereby contributing to saving lives and livelihoods.

According to Dr John Nkengasong, Director of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), African Union Member States from the day of declaration will be able to start placing online pre-orders for their vaccine’s allocation through the Africa Medical Supplies Platform.

“We are proud to participate in giving direct access to cutting edge COVID-19 vaccines through Africa; this is essential to protect our people and reopen our economies”, he added.

AVATT has secured a provisional 270 million COVID-19 vaccines doses from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, AMSP – the single-source platform enabling faster, more transparent and cost-effective access to COVID-19 supplies – has opened pre-orders, offering equitable access of COVID-19 vaccines doses for 55 African Union member states.

The Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) is supporting the vaccination.

operations by launching a new category on vaccine accessories that will help the member states to procure products such as ultra-low temperature freezers, personal protection equipment, cotton wool rolls, syringes and needles.

The Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) is a non-profit initiative launched by the African Union as an immediate, integrated and practical response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) was established by the African Union chairperson, President Cyril Ramaphosa as a component in support of the Africa Vaccine Strategy and was endorsed by the AU Bureau of Heads of State and Government on 20th of August, 2020.