The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) are to support Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) based in Senegal with medical equipment and biomedical research in the fight against COVID-19 across a network of laboratories in several Sub-Saharan African countries. This intervention is facilitated through the IsDB Reverse Linkage Mechanism and under the Arab Africa Trade Bridges (AATB) program as part of the IsDB Group COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Program (3Rs). It would ensure IPD’s laboratories network across ten other African OIC member countries receive medical equipment and collaborate in their responses to COVID-19 through the sharing of knowledge and expertise. The ten countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Togo.
Commenting on the ITFC’s partnership with the IPD, Eng. Hani Salem Sonbol, CEO of ITFC, said: “The mandate of the AATB Program is to support regional integration between African and Arab countries and to enhance SMEs export development in important sectors of the economies of these countries. “During this pandemic, AATB is working to enhance the resilience of the health and agri-food sectors and its value chains in African member countries and create synergies between them in humanity’s fight against COVID-19.
