Ghana has received 177,600 doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccines under the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT).
AVAT was established by the African COVID-19 Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, set up in November 2020 under the African Union chairmanship of President Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa.
The doses are part of a total of 6.4 million vaccine doses to be shipped to African Union Member States in August 2021.
Ghana is among the first ten African countries to receive vaccines through the partnership.
The vaccine deliveries are part of the COVID-19 vaccine advance procurement agreement which was signed by AVAT on 28 March 2021 for the purchase of 220 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, with prospects to order an additional 180 million doses.
On Saturday, the Deputy Minister of Health Tina Gifty Mensah and the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye were both at the airport on to receive the vaccines.
A press release announcing the arrival of the vaccines at the Kotoka International Airport said: “The agreement and the start of deliveries mark the first time that the African Union Member States have collectively purchased vaccines to safeguard the health of the African population”.
In total, the 400m vaccines acquired by AVAT are adequate to immunize a third of the African population.
The Member States who have ordered vaccines through AVAT will continue to receive shipments for the next following months.
Under the additional credit of $200 million for the Ghana COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project, the World Bank is contributing towards financing a total of 16.9 million vaccine doses through AVAT.
In addition, the project is helping to enlarge the deployment of vaccines so that doses translate into effective and equitable vaccinations.
The agreement with Johnson & Johnson was made possible by a USD 2 billion facility provided by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), who are also the Financial and Transaction Advisers, Guarantors, Instalment Payment Advisers and Payment Agents, and the support of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) who coordinated the alignment of the AU Ministers of Finance on the financing arrangements.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) supported by the African Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) is providing logistical and delivery services to the various African Union Member States.