Vaccine Equity: Elumelu, Kuti, Davido, others urge world leaders to fulfil COVID-19 Vaccine pledges

*United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Africa ambassadors and supporters in a they need should redeem their COVID-19 Vaccine pledges and generously to donate the doses to low and middle-income countries on the African continent

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

As the global world intensifies efforts at administering Coronavirus vaccinations and agint the damaging COVID-19 pandemic, some prominent Africans have joined their voices to calls for more vaccines for the Black continent.

The 48 United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Africa ambassadors and supporters recently signed a letter to world leaders to honour their promises by delivering urgently doses of the COVID-19 Vaccines to Africa.

ConsumerConnect reports the healthy body in a statement Wednesday, October 27 disclosed that “it found that doses delivered to G20 countries per capita are 15 times higher than doses delivered per capita to sub-Saharan African countries; 15 times higher than doses delivered per capita to low-income countries; 3 times higher than doses delivered per capita in all other countries combined.”

Accordingly, Mr. Tony Elumelu, Nigerian entrepreneur; Beninese singer-songwriter, Angelique Kidjo; Nigerian Afrobeat musician, Femi Kuti; and pop star, David Adeleke a.k.a Davido, who were among the UNICEF Africa ambassadors and supporters reminded the global leaders to redeem their vaccine pledges and ship the COVID-19 vaccines to the continent for improved vaccinations.

The global health body in a statement Wednesday, October 27, 2021, said: “The letter’s signatories, including Angelique Kidjo, Arlo Parks, Davido, Tendai Mtawarira, Femi Kuti, Tony Elumelu, Ramla Ali, Winnie Byanyima and others, are calling on leaders to donate the pledged vaccines by December, along with the necessary resources to turn the vaccines into vaccinations.”

Wealthy countries with more supplies than they need had generously pledged to donate those doses to low and middle-income countries via COVAX but the promised doses are moving too slowly, stated UNICEF.

The statement also noted: “Of the 1.3 billion additional doses countries have pledged to donate, only 356 million doses have been provided to COVAX.”

Henrietta Fore UNICEF Executive Director, also said that “African countries, in particular, have largely been left without access to COVID-19 vaccines.

“Less than five per cent of the African population are fully vaccinated, leaving many countries at high-risk of further outbreaks.

“Vaccine inequity is not just holding the poorest countries back – it is holding the world back.”

The health agency is, however, optimistic that the plea from some of its ambassadors could go a long way.

“As leaders prepare to meet for the G20 Summit in Rome this weekend, 48 UNICEF Africa ambassadors and supporters from across the continent have united in an open letter.

“They are calling for leaders to honour their promises to urgently deliver doses, writing that ‘the stakes could not be higher,” the statement added.

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