African countries might receive funding to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines

Ramaphosa addressed a press conference in Berlin, after the German Business and the Compact with Africa Summit that was hosted by Chancellor Angela Merkel as part of the G20 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. 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. 

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“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 attempting to get a Covid-19 vaccine waiver from international vaccine manufacturers in an attempt to allow poorer countries to also manufacture the vaccines and mitigate the impact of the coronavirus.

However that plea has 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  the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.