Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said the arrangement of the COVID-19 immunization ought to be done in a fair and reasonable way instead of based on the most elevated bidder.
This is in agreement to an announcement delivered by his representative, Laolu Akande, at the virtual 2020 EURAFRICA Forum with the topic, “Towards a Realistic Euro-African Partnership During and Beyond the COVID-19 Era”.
Osinbajo said that such method would successfully contain the worldwide spread of COVID-19.
The culmination highlighted introductions from outstanding worldwide pioneers, including the UN Secretary-General, Mr Antonio Guterres and the Prime Minister of Cape Verde, Mr Ulisses Correia Silva among others.
It aims to foster stronger collaboration between Europe and Africa, and better promote a shared green and inclusive growth, among other objectives.
“Europe should work closely with Africa to ensure that when a vaccine is finally deployed, it should not be on the basis of the highest bidder but rather be made available at an affordable and in an accessible manner”.
This is a matter that should not be taken for granted. We saw during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in richer parts of the world, that orders for test kits and reagents by African countries were deemed too small and tended to be ignored.
“Although Nigeria does not have the resources or means to pre-pay for a COVID-19 vaccine; we are fortunate to be a GAVI supported country”.
“We urge the EU to lend support to GAVI’s effort to ensure equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines under the COVAX initiative. This way, poorer countries and their citizens will get the vaccines they need at the same time as the rest of the world,” he said.
Osinbajo said the summit offered an opportunity for Europe and Africa to share perspectives on matters of mutual interest.
According to him, a global crisis calls for global partnerships.
He said that if COVID-19 existed in any part of the world, it remained a significant threat to every part of the world.
“The partnership between Africa and the European Union is good platform for both sides to work together on economic recovery and rebuilding of health systems”.
“It is also equally important that we become even stronger advocates for closer international cooperation to tackle the fall out of COVID-19.”
NAN
