Africa concerned over market for its COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers

ADDIS ABABA - The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Thursday expressed its concern over lack of market for African COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers.

The concern was expressed by Ahmed Ogwell, acting director of Africa CDC, as he emphasized the need to ensure a sustainable market for African vaccine manufacturers in line with the continent's higher demand for vaccines.

"It is a very big concern that we have facilities manufacturing a health product and there is a need and, indeed, there is a market for that health product here on the continent; and that product is not being purchased," Ogwell told journalists during a regular briefing Thursday.

"This is a situation that we would like to avoid because it has very huge ramifications for public health and also for Africa's ambition to manufacture its own health products," the acting Africa CDC director said.

Ogwell's comments came amid some African vaccine manufacturers expressing their concern over lack of market for their products, threatening to shut down their plants due to lack of order.

The problem came although the African continent still remains the least vaccinated continent, where only 16.9 percent of Africa's population has been fully vaccinated, according to the Africa CDC.

As of Thursday, Africa reported a total of 11,616,372 COVID-19 cases with 253,056 deaths and 10,962,914 recoveries, according to the Africa CDC.

South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya are among the countries with the most cases on the continent, said the center.