WTO HEAD SAYS SOUTH AFRICA, SENEGAL, RWANDA AND NIGERIA CONSIDERED AS VACCINE PRODUCTION HUBS

World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala poses before an interview with Reuters at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, April 12, 2021. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

Reuters

ZURICH, June 21 Africa is working with the European Union and other partners to help create regional vaccine manufacturing hubs in South Africa, Senegal and Rwanda, with Nigeria under consideration, World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said.

« We have now seen that over-centralization of vaccine production capacity is incompatible with equitable access in a crisis situation, » Okonjo-Iweala said on Monday during a virtual meeting.

« Regional production hubs, in tandem with open supply chains, offer a more promising path to preparedness for future health crisis. »

WTO head says South Africa, Senegal, Rwanda and Nigeria considered as vaccine production hubs