A Pharmacist and Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) Fellow, has stated that African countries do not have large manufacturing facilities to produce Covid-19 vaccines.

Dr Kwame Sarpong Asiedu, speaking on Joy News' Newsfile, Saturday, revealed that out of the 55 countries in Africa, there are only 10 sites across seven countries that produce vaccines.

According to him, the limited facilities in Africa is because, "historically, diseases that require vaccination have disproportionately affected countries where the standards of living are low, purchasing powers are low, so there is not a lot of money to involve in the manufacturing of vaccines."    

He said, with the global need for vaccination, European countries "will prioritise their citizens, over ours" therefore, African countries should not rely on European countries to supply doses for inoculation.

Dr Kwame Asideu said African countries should join hands and facilitate the production of Covid-19 vaccines.

"We need to up the game when it comes to vaccine manufacture. You need to look at your pharmaceutical industry, you need to look at those who have the capability to produce under a sceptic condition because you don’t want your vaccines to be contaminated," he told host Samson Lardy Anyenini.

He further lauded the Akufo-Addo administration for pursuing local production options, following setbacks encountered with sourcing from foreign markets.

So far, four local pharmaceutical manufacturers are said to be ready to provide the Ghanaian market with Covid-19 vaccines.

Nevertheless, the European Commission has named Ghana as one of its possible manufacturing hub of Covid-19 vaccines in Africa.