Olusola Bello

Nigeria is completely left out from the World Bank’s rapid mobilization of vaccine financing aims to support affordable and equitable vaccine acquisition and deployment, and to signal to potential suppliers that Bank financing is available to its clients.

Out of about 21 countries that are benefiting  from the programme six  of them are from Africa . These are Tunisia, Cote D Ivoire, Gambia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, São Tomé e Príncipe

Such a commitment provides an incentive to the vaccine manufacturers to supply developing economies at affordable prices.

All eligible Bank client countries (IBRD/IDA) can access the vaccine financing within their current lending envelopes for IDA countries and exposure limits for IBRD.

The World Bank Group is working in global solidarity with COVAX, WHO, UNICEF and other partners at global and country levels to support IDA and IBRD countries.

This financing can be used by countries to make payments to COVAX, including the purchase of additional doses beyond the COVAX-provided 20% as countries aim for higher levels of coverage.

IFC’s $4 billion Global Health Platform is supporting private companies in delivering health products and services – including vaccines to developing countries.

This includes investments in vaccine manufacturers to foster expanded production of COVID-19 vaccines in low- and middle-income countries, with production reserved for emerging markets; ability to invest in production to address other potential bottlenecks, including vials, needles and syringes, and cold storage capacity; support for mapping COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity.

The approach draws on the World Bank Group’s expertise in supporting large scale immunization programs for vaccine preventable diseases, as well as public health programs to tackle infectious diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases

Through this, the World Bank Group is working with partners on the largest vaccination effort in history to stop the COVID-19 pandemic.

On April 2, 2020, at the initial COVID-19 response phase, the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved a $6 billion Global COVID-19 Response Program (also called the COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Program, or SPRP).

The program has reached over 100 countries with emergency operations to prevent, detect, and respond to COVID-19 and strengthen systems for public health preparedness.

The timing of potential vaccine development was not known when the SPRP was approved, but global vaccine development efforts progressed rapidly.

Recognizing the need for COVID-19 vaccines, on October 13, 2020, the World Bank Board approved an additional financing of $12 billion to the SPRP for developing countries to finance the acquisition and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.