Africa in line for funding to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines - Ramaphosa
President Cyril Ramaphosa has told the media in Germany that funding may be made available for African countries to manufacture their own Covid-19 vaccines.
Ramaphosa addressed a press conference in Berlin on Friday at the conclusion of an Africa-Germany summit.
“We believe that a number of countries can gear up their capabilities and finance can be made available through the World Bank and the IMF would be willing to assist us, and the African Bank as well," he said.
"This has been a very historic meeting to address a contemporary issue of great importance that touches on the lives and economies of many African countries.
“All of us in that meeting felt that Africa needs to be given the opportunity and the right to produce vaccines. It is a matter of life and death and it is also an economic imperative because vaccine policy has an impact on the growth of our economies.
"Therefore we say that production must be also spread to African countries and this should be done in this waiver that we are advocating for in the WTO and we are.”
South Africa and India have been at the forefront of attempts to get a Covid-19 vaccine waiver from international vaccine manufacturers to allow poorer countries to also manufacture vaccines.
However, the pleas have fallen on deaf ears with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) failing to agree on the proposal.
It’s been estimated that only 2% of the African continent has vaccinated its population against the deadly virus.
This is while more than 60% of European and American countries have inoculated their citizens against Covid-19.
