President Paul Kagame has called for increased global vaccine and medical supplies equity, noting that it is necessary to curb the Covid-19 pandemic as well as drive economic recovery.

Kagame was speaking at the G20 summit in Rome, Italy on behalf of NEPAD, the African Union Development Agency. The summit of G20 Heads of State and Government, convenes world leaders for discussions focused on health, economic recovery, climate and energy.

The G20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union (EU) and works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development.

The President said that despite making nearly 18 per cent of the world’s people, less than 5  per cent of Covid vaccine doses have reached the continent.

"We must ensure a consistent supply of vaccines for low-income countries to meet the target of 70% vaccination by mid-2022… national health systems need to be upgraded to efficiently handle mass vaccination…We have to build manufacturing capacity for vaccines in developing countries,” he said on the remedial approaches.

With Africa importing 99% of its vaccines, he said that the plan is to have the continent produce at least 60 per cent by 2040.

"This week, Rwanda and Senegal concluded agreements with BioNTech to build end-to-end mRNA vaccine production facilities, starting in mid-2022. Technology and know-how will be transferred to build the capacity of local companies, and the doses produced will be distributed in Africa,” he said.

Kagame noted the need for continued strengthening of the World Health Organization and Africa CDC along with support for the new African Medicines Agency.

On the sidelines of the summit, President Kagame met with Director-General of World Trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands and Charles Michel the President of the European Council.