Standard Chartered to Commit $200m to COVID-19 Vaccine Acquisition Programme

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and Standard Chartered have announced an agreement for Standard Chartered to provide $200 million of not-for-profit funding towards Afreximbank’s structured framework to help finance the acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines for African nations.

A statement explained that the collaboration between Standard Chartered and Afreximbank would help ensure that 55 countries across Africa have access to COVID-19 vaccines.

In addition, the facility would play a part in ensuring that Africa can achieve its COVID-19 strategy, which targets vaccinating a minimum of 60 per cent of Africa’s population.

This facility is part of the Advance Procurement Commitment (APC) framework structured by Afreximbank in collaboration with the African Vaccines Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), under which Afreximbank provided a guarantee of USD 2bn to vaccine manufacturers to secure access to COVID-19 vaccines for African countries.

Over the last year, Afreximbank has also launched a number of facilities to support its Member Countries. These include the Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation facility (PATIMFA), under which the Bank has disbursed over USD 6.5bn to mitigate and manage the financial, economic and health impacts of the pandemic. In addition, Afreximbank put in place a USD 1.5bn Collaborative Covid-19 Pandemic Response Facility (COPREFA), working with partners to support African economies during the pandemic.

The funding is part of the Standard Chartered’s $1 billion financing commitment that was launched in March 2020, which aims to tackle the pandemic by financing vital equipment such as personal protective equipment, ventilators and now vaccines. To date, $900 million of this have been allocated and over $700 million disbursed to clients.

Commenting on the partnership, President of Afreximbank, Prof. Benedict Oramah said: “We are delighted that Standard Chartered has committed $200 million to support the ongoing work of Afreximbank and AVATT in helping African countries secure access to COVID-19 vaccines. “Having an effective financing solution for vaccine procurement in place for Africa is of paramount importance to ensure we are not left further behind in the ongoing race.

“This agreement demonstrates the unwavering commitment of Afreximbank and Standard Chartered to helping Africa overcome the challenges of the pandemic.”

On his part, the Chief Executive, Corporate, Commercial, and Institutional Banking at Standard Chartered, Simon Cooper, said: “The speed of vaccine rollout is not only a healthcare issue but is increasingly a differentiator of near-term, post pandemic economic recovery for African nations. “We are acutely aware that Africa accounts for under two per cent of vaccines administered worldwide; we welcome Afreximbank’s efforts to tackle this and we want to use our $1 billion facility to help.”