Following the announcement by the African Union Chairperson, President Cyril Ramaphosa, on 14 January 2021 that the African Union 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), today commenced the COVID-19 vaccines pre-order programme for all African Union Member States. The African Export-Import Bank (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.

While 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 today pre-orders, offering an equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines doses for the 55 African Union Member States.

“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”, said African Union Special Envoy Strive Masiyiwa. “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”.

“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,” said Prof. Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank. “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", he added.

To support vaccination operations, AMSP has also launched a new category on vaccine accessories which will help Member States to procure products such as ultra-low temperature freezers, personal protective equipment, cotton wool rolls, syringes and needles.

“The biggest challenges to COVID-19 vaccine access in Africa have been financing of the vaccines and the logistics of vaccinating at scale, but we are glad that this gap is being filled by the Afreximbank financing facility. The critical decision now is how to get started so that once we start there will be no disruptions, and this is where AMSP will play a very big role”, said Dr John Nkengasong, Director of Africa CDC.

“From today, African Union Member States will be able to start placing online pre-orders for their vaccines allocation through the Africa Medical Supplies Platform,” said Fatoumata Bâ, Founder and Executive Chair of Janngo and Managing Partner of Janngo Capital. “We are proud to participate in providing direct access to cutting-edge COVID-19 vaccines throughout Africa; This is essential to protect our people and reopen our economies.”

About Africa CDC

Africa CDC is a specialized technical institution of the African Union that strengthens the capacity and capability of Africa’s public health institutions as well as partnerships to detect and respond quickly and effectively to disease threats and outbreaks, based on data-driven interventions and programmes. Learn more at: www.africacdc.org

About Afreximbank

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is a Pan-African multilateral financial institution with the mandate of financing and promoting intra-and extra-African trade. Afreximbank was established in October 1993 and owned by African governments, the African Development Bank and other African multilateral financial institutions as well as African and non-African public and private investors. The Bank was established under two constitutive documents, an Agreement signed by member states, which confers on the Bank the status of an international organization, and a Charter signed by all Shareholders, which governs its corporate structure and operations. Afreximbank deploys innovative structures to deliver financing solutions that are supporting the transformation of the structure of Africa’s trade, accelerating industrialization and intra-regional trade, thereby sustaining economic expansion in Africa. At the end of 2019, the Bank’s total assets and guarantees stood at USD$15.5 billion and its shareholders funds amounted to US$2.8 billion. Voted “African Bank of the Year” in 2019, the Bank disbursed more than US$38 billion between 2016 and 2020. Afreximbank has ratings assigned by GCR (international scale) (A-), Moody’s (Baa1) and Fitch (BBB-). The Bank is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt. For more information, visit: www.afreximbank.com. Follow us on Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

About AMSP

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. The online platform was developed under the leadership of the African Union Special Envoy, Strive Masiyiwa and powered by Janngo on behalf of the African Union’s Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and in partnership with African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) with the support of leading African & international Institutions, Foundations & Corporations as well as Governments of China, Canada & France. For more information visit www.amsp.africa

About Janngo

Janngo builds, grows and invests in pan-African digital champions with proven business models and inclusive social impact. It builds digital ecosystems in high growth sectors by providing business support and digital platforms allowing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to scale and contribute to the economic empowerment of youth and women through job creation and capacity building. For more information visit www.janngo.africa

About AVATT

African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) established by the African Union chairperson, President Cyril Ramaphosa as a component in support of the Africa Vaccine Strategy that was endorsed by the AU Bureau of Heads of State and Government on 20th of August, 2020. The AVATT will be chaired by President Ramaphosa and will include Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, Dr. Zweli Lawrence Mkhize, Mr. Strive Masiyiwa, Dr. Donald Kaberuka, Professor Benedict Oramah, H.E Amira Elfadi, Dr. John Nkengasong and others, as to be nominated by the Chair of the African Union and the Chairperson of the Commission.

Media Contacts

Africa CDC

James Ayodele

+251-953-912-454

ayodelej@africa-union.org

Afreximbank

Amadou Labba Sall

+20-120-532-0254

asall@afreximbank.com

Janngo & AMSP

Antonia Gleizes

+336-23-13-71-72

media@janngo.africa

AVATT

George Sibotshiwe

+27-71-467-7689

george@nubiconafrica.co.za

For further media inquiries, please contact:

1. Ms. Wynne Musabayana | Head of Communication Division| Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission | E-mail: MUSABAYANAW@africa-union.org |

2. Mr. Gamal Ahmed A. Karrar | Senior Communication Officer| Directorate of Information and Communication, African Union Commission | E-mail: GamalK@africa-union.org

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