New Financing Agreement to Boost South Africa’s COVID-19 Vaccination Program and Health System

Today, the World Bank Group Board of Executive Directors approved a 454.4 million euro (ZAR 7.6 billion or $480 million) loan for South Africa’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Project. The loan comes following a request by the Government of South Africa (GoSA) for assistance in financing vaccine procurement contracts. Specifically, this project will retroactively finance the procurement of 47 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by the GoSA. South Africa is the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, with the highest cumulative numbers of infections and deaths.