Senior government officials and a representative of kENUP Foundation on Thursday met with a range of stakeholders and toured facilities in Kigali, in a step that brings Rwanda closer to local production of vaccines and other biologics.

kENUP Foundation is global organisation that supports research-based innovation and was represented by Holm Keller, their Executive Chairman.

According to the Ministry of Health, the visit by Keller is part of a process to plan for the manufacturing of vaccines and biologics.

"The purpose of this visit was to prepare the ground for manufacturing vaccines and other pharmaceutical products in Rwanda as soon as next year. Rwanda is working closely with the kENUP Foundation, Team Europe, and many other partners to develop this industry in our country,” Minister Ngamije told The New Times.  

"We aim to expand vaccine production capacity across Africa,” the Foundation said after their meeting.

Who are kENUP

According to their website, kENUP Foundation is a non-profit public benefit foundation supporting research-based innovation in the wider health industries for societal benefit.

kENUP initiates and facilitates public and private investment into innovations with the potential to improve the livelihood of every citizen. The development of such innovations is often hampered by failing markets. 

"With our intervention, we aim to change that.”

Amid the growing shortage of live-saving vaccines which has become even more critical with the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic, Rwanda was recently selected by the African Union as one of the three hubs for vaccine production on the continent.

The other countries are Senegal and South Africa.