Addis Ababa, Jan 22 : The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), has announced the commencement of Covid-19 vaccines pre-order program for all African Union (AU) members. The move by the Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP), on behalf of the Africa CDC, came a week after the announcement by the South African President and African Union (AU) Chairperson, President Cyril Ramaphosa, on January 14 that the AU has secured a provisional 270 million Covid-19 vaccine doses for Africa through its Covid-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), Xinhua reported. "The AMSP, on behalf of the Africa CDC, today commenced the Covid-19 vaccines pre-order programme for all AU members," an Africa CDC statement read. The African Export-Import Bank (AfreximBank) will facilitate payments by providing advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to $2 billion to the manufacturers on behalf of the members. According to the Africa CDC, the initiative offers an equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines doses for the 55 AU members. "These are historical times. For the first time in history, Africa has secured access to millions of vaccine doses in the middle of a pandemic as most of Western countries," the statement quoted the AU Special Envoy, Strive Masiyiwa, as saying. "There is still a huge shortage of vaccine doses and that is why this continental collaboration has designed a fair allocation coupled with timely and equitable access of Covid-19 vaccines across the continent," Masiyiwa. President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, Benedict Oramah, also stressed that the AfreximBank is proud to expand its support to African economies in their bid to contain the pandemic. "Our vaccine financing facility builds on the success of our Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA) to open access to Covid-19 vaccines to African states based on a whole-of-Africa approach favored by the African Union," Oramah said. "By providing advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to 2 billion dollars to candidate vaccine manufacturers, Afreximbank will ensure that African states are able to rapidly access Covid-19 vaccines, at competitive prices and in a timely manner thereby contributing to saving lives and livelihoods," he added. /IANS