Egypt to supply fellow African states with 30M doses of anti-COVID-19 vaccines: President Sisi

CAIRO – 5 June 2022: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi announced Sunday at the first edition of Africa Health ExCon that Egypt would supply fellow African states with 30 million doses of anti-COVID-19 vaccines.

That is in light of the country's selection early in 2022 as one of six African states that would receive the  the mRNA technology used in the manufacturing of vaccines and other medical drugs necessary to confront many incurable diseases. The other five are Senegal, Kenya, South Africa, Tunisia and Nigeria.

Africa Health ExCon is held by the Egyptian Authority for Unified Procurement (UPA), and is attended by participants from around 100 countries.

“I want to tell my brothers in Africa that limited resources are never an obstacle in the way of achieving goals,” President Sisi stressed, given that two panel discussions on the localization of drug manufacturing on the continent took place.

President Sisi vowed to continue sharing know-how and experience with fellow African states in all sectors, and addressed foreign investors saying that the “capabilities of Africa are enormous.”

The chief of state stressed that the focus must not just be on natural resources but that it has to include human capabilities, which are significant on the continent.

Highlighting an example of leveraging human resources to achieve an efficient use of scarce natural ones, President Sisi noted that Egypt’s water share has remained the same since the population size was three million until now whereas it exceeded 100 million.

Yet, the country implemented programs for water recycling, desalination, and rainwater harvesting, "and we are surviving," the president pointed out.

The Egyptian president thanked pharmaceuticals companies for cooperating with Egypt in dealing with many diseases. He equally encouraged them to invest in Africa as its population is mostly young and is nearing 1.5 billion, which makes it the future.

"All the companies you see operating in Egypt chose to invest in the country because of safety. They knew that their investments would not be subject to vandalism or destruction," President Sisi underscored, warning against the economic harm incurred by instability and security issues.