Excellences, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning.

On behalf of the African Union Commission and on my personal behalf, I would like to welcome you all to the handing over ceremony of 12,000 doses of COVID-19 Janssen (Johnson and Johnson), purchased with the facilitation of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through AVAT- the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust.

As you may know, the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust is an African Union special purpose vehicle created to enable a pooled procurement of vaccines for Africa. This collaborative initiative makes the pride of Africa. We salute our Heads of State and Government, particularly the AU Champion on COVID-19 response, H.E. President Cyril Ramaphosa of the Republic of South Africa, for the exemplary visionary leadership in this regard.

Through this home-grown solution African Union Member States aim to purchase 400 million doses of Johnson and Johnson through a collaborative effort financially backed by Afrexim Bank. This will contribute to vaccinating at least 30% of African population. So far, 220 million doses have been ordered, and at least 10 Member States have received their first consignment, and more shipments are ongoing.

The beginning of 2021 saw numerous vaccines given emergency approval and begin their roll out in countries across the world. As of 2^nd September 2021, over 5.3 billion vaccine doses had been administered worldwide. The figures give hope of a return to ‘normal’.

Considering the current population in AUC and AU-Member State Embassy Communities in Addis Ababa of about 4,000, it shows that only about 25.5% are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. This figure is far below where we need to be in order to be near normalcy and return back to work. It is therefore pertinent that all staff and supervisors should encourage colleagues to get vaccinated as this is the only way for us to return to our previous working environment.

The vaccines purchased through AVAT for the African Union will help secure the AU’s business continuity and support a return to normalcy of our operations. COVID-19 vaccination is now offering a way to transition out of this phase of the pandemic.

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The delivery of this vaccine would have not been possible without the close collaboration between the African Union Commission and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health through The Ministry of Foreign Affairs for facilitation of its various authorities to clear the usage of Johnson and Johnson vaccine by the Commission.

To them, and to the AVAT Partners as well as Africa CDC team, we say THANK YOU!

At this junction, on behalf of the African Union Commission, I would like to cordially receive this donation of Covid-19 Johnson and Johnson vaccine for vaccination of AU-Member State Embassies communities based in Addis as well as AU Staff and their dependents respectively.