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Add to Preferred SourcesThe Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Board of Directors has approved a EUR90 million (USD100 million equivalent) loan to support the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire in strengthening its vaccination campaign and relevant healthcare systems. This is the first AIIB project in Côte d’lvoire.
The project objectives are to prevent, detect and respond to threats posed by COVID-19, as well as bolster public health preparedness to deal with the evolving pandemic in Côte d’Ivoire. It will assist the Government of Côte d’Ivoire in achieving its target to expand COVID-19 vaccination coverage to 70 percent of the population and provide booster doses to 9.9 million persons (35 percent of the population).
In addition to vaccine acquisition and deployment, the project will provide financing for immediate health sector needs and help the country to be better prepared to cope with future public health emergencies in a swift, effective, and efficient manner. This will include the renovation of healthcare facilities, isolation centers, and cold chain facilities, along with the recruitment and training of frontline health workers for vaccination sites in deprived or rural communities outside of the capital Abidjan.
“AIIB’s contribution will provide urgently needed financing to support the Côte d’Ivoire government’s broader objective to enhance population immunity,” said AIIB Vice President, Investment Operations (Region 2) Konstantin Limitovskiy. “This project demonstrates the Bank’s commitment to gradually building capacity to deliver projects to nonregional members, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. In addition, by co-financing with the World Bank, the project will further build the partnership between AIIB and Côte d’Ivoire to help relieve the country’s public health pressures and facilitate its economic and financial recovery.”
The project will also integrate a flexible and community-centered vaccine deployment strategy, expanding the number of vaccination sites at community-level, and increasing the number of mobile vaccination units. Digitalization of the vaccination campaign will also be a key component of the project, with the recording and integration of individuals’ COVID-19 history and vaccination status into the national digital health information system to enhance the efficiency of the vaccination campaign and strengthen the country’s long-term pandemic response.
The loan will be under AIIB’s COVID-19 Crisis Recovery Facility (CRF), which provides up to USD20 billion of financing to both public and private-sector entities facing serious adverse impacts as a result of the pandemic. To date, AIIB’s portfolio under the CRF comprises a total of 50 projects amounting to over USD11.8 billion to support 26 members in containing the pandemic and enabling sustainable economic recovery.