COVID-19: World Bank earmarks $12bn to support vaccination in Africa

The World Bank has earmarked $12 billion to support vaccination against COVID-19 in Africa.

David Malpass, president of the bank, said the fund would be in the form of grants or on ‘highly concessional terms,’ Bloomberg reported on Saturday.

The decision, the reports said, was sequel to January 27 virtual meeting on the Africa COVID-19 vaccine financing and deployment strategy.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and one of the countries with the highest infections and fatalities from the virus on the continent, was not among the few countries listed as beneficiaries of the fund by Malpass. However, two-thirds of the benefitting countries were not immediately listed by the bank’s chief.

“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,” Malpass said.

He added:  “Since the outbreak of COVID-19 last March, the bank has committed 25 billion dollars to African countries to support their health and economic recovery, and we expect to commit an additional 15 billion dollars by June. 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.”

Data from the Africa Centre for Disease Control as of Saturday morning showed that African Union member countries (55 in total) had reported 3.534 million cases, 3.014 recoveries and 89,839 deaths, with Nigeria having 128, 674 and 1,577 of the cases and deaths respectively.

The Africa Centre for Disease Control had suggested that it would cost between 10 billion dollars and 15 billion dollars to vaccinate 60 percent of Africa.

Nigeria had, in early January, promised to secure 100,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine which it said would first be administered on frontline health workers and other vulnerable people in the country. The vaccine would come courtesy the World Health Organisation which advocates equity in vaccines distribution to ensure developing nations are not left out in the immunisation campaign.

The announcement came after the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government had proposed 400 billion naira for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccine with which it hoped to vaccinate 70 percent of its estimated 200 million population.