Ramaphosa made the remarks while addressing an international meeting on Covid-19 on Thursday.
Last week, South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare which won a deal to package and sell the Johnson & Johnson vaccine said the plant risked closing down after failing to get a single order.

Africa needs the skills and capacity to manufacture its own vaccines, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday, as the continent lags other global regions in inoculating against Covid-19.

With only around two percent of the world’s total number of shots so far administered, “Africa needs to harness its own continental capabilities and identify opportunities for collaboration across… countries,” Ramaphosa told a conference on vaccine production organised by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

He said other countries outside the continent “could offer technological expertise, financing and investment“, suggesting India and Brazil could help with guidance on how they have developed their own generic pharmaceutical industries.

“We will also need capacity-building in the form of skills and knowledge transfer to ensure we can sustain local manufacturing,” Ramaphosa added.

Moreover, Johnson&Johnson vaccines also have a reputation problem. Last April, South Africa stopped administering the drug after it was blamed for causing blood clots in adults.

Africa is running out of COVID-19 vaccines, prompting calls for the continent to develop its own manufacturing facilities so the continent less reliant on imports.