Paris summit: Close to 740 billion FCFA needed to produce vaccines in Africa 

The Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation,  co-hosted by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the African Union, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), and the Government of France, today Thursday, June 20 in Paris have announced that  $1.2 billion(735,139,200,000FCFA) is the sum of money needed to produce vaccines in Africa, which is facing numerous health crises including rising cholera outbreaks.

The Forum was the launch of Gavi’s investment opportunity, setting out the impact and targets for Gavi’s work to support and sustain immunisation from 2026 to 2030, and the funding required for this work. 

It also served as the launch of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA), a unique financing instrument in support of building sustainable vaccine manufacturing on the African continent

Speaking at the opening of the summit  that has taken place in Paris, French president, Emmanuel Macron said that the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator “will be an essential step towards a genuine African vaccine market.”

Three quarters of this funding will come from Europe, Macron told the summit, which was also attended by leaders from Botswana, Rwanda, Senegal, Ghana, as well as visiting ministers, health groups and pharmaceutical firms.

The need for Africa to produce its own vaccines was triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, that saw Africa depend on foreign countries for vaccines, despite being a home to raw material for vaccines.

A recent resurgence of cholera in many parts of Africa has highlighted the urgent need for more local vaccine producers. Cameroon is among several countries in West and Central Africa experiencing recurrent cholera outbreaks. Between 29 October 2021 and 30 April 2022, a total of 6652 suspected cases including 134 deaths (case fatality ratio 2%) were reported.