The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the African continent’s vulnerabilities when it comes to health manufacturing — the production of vaccines and pharmaceutical drugs falls far short of local demand. Without means of production, African countries were left without COVID-19 vaccines last year when high-income countries hoarded global supply.
But this has started to change as new projects have emerged and countries have stepped forward with intentions to host manufacturing plants in the name of increasing the health security of nations across the continent.
The African Development Bank Group has committed to invest $3 billion over the next decade in vaccine and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Devex spoke with Solomon Quaynor, the bank’s vice president of private sector, infrastructure, and industrialization, about these investments.