By MAIMBO MWEEMBA
Foreign Affairs Minister Stanley Kakubo has called for increased support and equitable access to Covid-19 Vaccines for African Union Member States.
Speaking on arrival at Bole International Airport in Addis, Mr Kakubo said equitable distribution of vaccines will help member states to achieve the envisaged vaccination of 60-percent of the African population.
Mr Kakubo is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to attend the 39th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union.
Mr Kakubo said that many African countries including Zambia have not recorded high vaccination rates citing lack of adequate information and myths associated with the vaccines.
He said that Zambia supported calls for African Countries to start producing vaccines stating that the adage “African problems needing African solutions” must be actualized.
“The pandemic has awakened Africa’s need not to be entirely dependent on cooperating partners but rather find pragmatic means of resolving its challenges, the pandemic has also affected many sectors of the economy that include Trade and tourism hence the need to maximize Covid-19 vaccination in order to revert to the normal way of doing business,” he said.
Mr Kakubo said government is putting in place mechanisms of ensuring that Zambia benefits from countries it is accredited to.
He said there is need for Zambia to reap maximum benefits in sectors such as Trade, Education, Agriculture and commerce in countries where it has presence.
The 39th Ordinary Session of the Executive council is being held under the AU theme for 2021 “Arts, Culture and Heritage: Levers for Building the Africa We Want.”
This was contained in a statement issued to the Independent Observer by First Secretary Press and Tourism at the Zambian Mission in Ethiopia Inutu Mwanza.
