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Business Reporter

AFRICAN Development Bank (AfDB) president, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has implored African leaders to focus on vaccine production and access for the continent as the deadly epidemic continues to take lives and hurt economies and livelihoods.

Dr Adesina addressed leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at a special summit held on Saturday, just days before the bank Group’s 2021 Annual meetings, scheduled for 23-25 June.

“Africa needs solutions to help it navigate through the very challenging times posed by the Covid-19 pandemic,” Dr Adesina said. “But the rebound will depend on access to vaccines.”

The African Development Bank will support the continent as part of the vaccines plan of the African Union. It is planning to commit US$3 billion to develop the pharmaceutical industry in Africa, Dr Adesina said.

“Africa should not be begging for vaccines,” Dr Adesina said. “Africa should be producing vaccines,” he stressed.

In recent months, the African Development Bank president has publicly emphasized the need to rapidly build a health care defense system for the continent, to tackle Covid-19 and future pandemics.

The bank has already channelled US$2 million in emergency assistance to the World Health Organisation to bolster the WHO’s capacity for infection prevention, testing, and case management. It has also provided US$28 million in funding to the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) for a Covid-19 response project. This will strengthen capacity to coordinate the Covid-19 response and future epidemics across Africa.

This year, the bank’s is organising its annual meetings around the theme, “Building Resilient Economies in Post Covid-19 Africa.” The meetings will provide a platform for its governors to share their countries’ experience in addressing the pandemic and the policy measures they are employing to rebuild economies and livelihoods.

Dr Adesina also touched on insecurity on the continent, highlighting that terrorist actions affect countries all across the continent, including the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin as well as the Horn of Africa regions, which must re-direct huge resources from their development programs.

“These insecurity situations now pose the biggest risks to Africa’s development. We must now link security to investment, growth and development,” he said.