NDAMU SANDU
The African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) has established a scheme to compensate citizens that experience side effects from Covid-19 vaccines as it pushes up the vaccination programme.
Countries are ramping up vaccination as they open up economies after months of lockdown to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the vaccination programmes had been held back by hesitancy amid fears of side effects.
The No-Fault Compensation Scheme for Covid-19 vaccines, launched in Abidjan on Tuesday, will provide citizens in participating countries in Africa and the Caribbean with prompt, fair and transparent compensation for unlikely adverse events associated with Covid-19 vaccines procured or distributed under the AVAT initiative.
Afreximbank president Benedict Oramah said the NFC is the “first ever scheme of its type developed and implemented at a continental level”.
He said 41 states in Africa and the Caribbean have signed for the scheme which went live in October.
Oramah said the bank would support initiatives that solve Africa’s problems.
“That is why we were created,” he said.
AU special envoy Strive Masiyiwa said it took more than a year to bring on board the compensation scheme and history will record that in the midst of a challenge, “this generation rose through the challenge and protected Africa”.
African economies are on a recovery path after experiencing a dip in growth rates due to lockdowns introduced to contain the spread of Covid-19. Experts say vaccination will reduce chances of future lockdowns.
Vera Songwe, UN under-secretary general and executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, said it is estimated that a month’s lockdown across Africa would cost the continent 2.5% of its annual GDP.
“Africa has put its people first with the AVAT No-Fault Compensation Scheme, one of the many innovations created during Covid to protect lives, keep markets functional and ensure our institutions provide support,” Songwe said.
She said Africa has shown that it can devise innovations “to save lives and livelihoods”.
AVAT acts as a centralised purchasing agent on behalf of the African Union Member States, to secure the necessary vaccines and blended financing resources for achieving Africa’s Covid-19 vaccination strategy.
AVAT’s institutional partners are the African Union, the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Afreximbank and the UN Economic Commission for Africa.
