The World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) have called for the manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines across Africa as well as a boost to jab imports and the associated financing in order to tackle vaccine inequity.
“The fact that we have vaccinated so little of our population is not acceptable,” said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general at the WTO and Nigeria’s former finance minister, during a virtual panel hosted in late May by UBA, a pan-African bank.
Without access to more doses, the continent will struggle to recover sustainably from the pandemic, she stated.
“We have to fight for it, whether it’s getting more vaccines in from outside production, [or] whether it’s manufacturing our own, and the WTO stands ready to do its bit to keep supply chains open for this manufacture.”
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