Today, at the Global Gateway Forum in Brussels, the EU announced new milestones worth €190 million in total to scale up local manufacturing and equitable access to quality, safe, effective and affordable health products in Africa. These six new separate investments concretely advance the Manufacturing and Access to Vaccines, Medicines and Health Technologies (MAV+) initiative at regional and continental level, and in particular in Rwanda, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal.
The European Commission and the European Investment Bank unveiled a €52 million agreement with Medaccess to increase its capacity to provide volume guarantees to manufacturers of medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, medical devices and nutritional products. With the aim of encouraging manufacturers to meet demand in Sub Saharan Africa while ensuring affordability and accessibility for the consumers, the guarantees will cover the manufacturer for their loss if a minimum amount of goods or services is not purchased. The guarantees can cover for example radiotherapy equipment or medical liquid oxygen.
Team Europe is supporting the ambition of Rwanda to position itself as a regional hub for vaccine manufacturing and medical innovation. The European Commission and the European Investment Bank, under the Human Development Accelerator (HDX), have awarded to BioNTech, through a blended finance operation of €95 million, a €35 million milestone-based grant and up to €60 million credit facility that can we be withdrawn from the European Investment Bank. This funding will support BioNTech to establish overall site infrastructure for facility operations, to develop clinical manufacturing capabilities and build contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) capabilities. With the mRNA manufacturing facility, BioNTech aims to contribute to establishing a sustainable vaccine ecosystem in Africa.
Jozef Síkela, Commissioner for International Partnerships said: “Global health is a key priority of the Global Gateway strategy, and the EU has already invested more than €1.9 billion in local vaccine and medicine manufacturing and affordable access in Africa. The agreement with BioNTech to support the advancement of its state-of-the-art mRNA manufacturing facility in Rwanda will boost expertise across the region and build increased independence from entities outside of Africa. The volume guarantees with MedAccess will encourage manufacturers to optimise supply and ensure affordability and accessibility for the consumer.”
“Strengthening health systems and ensuring access to life-saving medicines is a shared responsibility,“ said Karl Nehammer, European Investment Bank Vice-President responsible for health. “Through our support for BioNTech’s new facility in Rwanda, we are helping to build local capacity for vaccine development and production—where it’s needed most. At the same time, our partnership with MedAccess will help make essential health products more affordable and available across Africa. These are smart investments in public health, regional resilience, and long-term development.”
The European Commission also presented the following investments:
- €15.8 million to strengthen the biomanufacturing capabilities of South Africa, focusing on addressing skilled labour shortages and scaling up biomanufacturing processes for vaccines and pharmaceuticals. This support will also boost capacity building in biopharmaceutical production and pandemic preparedness and establish a Centre of Excellence for health product safety monitoring across Southern Africa.
- €1.9 million to strengthen the Ghana Food and Drugs Authority laboratory capacity and skills, further support the research and development ecosystem, strengthen compliance as well as continue to stimulate an enabling environment for local production of vaccines and pharmaceuticals in Ghana.
- €15.5 million for enabling local manufacturing of health, immunisation and nutrition commodities and in quality uplift for advancing local industry in medicine standards in Nigeria.
- €10 million for strengthening the pharmaceutical sovereignty of Senegal, by supporting the development of an ecosystem conducive to pharmaceutical production, particularly of vaccines, therapies and essential medicines in Senegal.
The new investments come at a moment when the European Commission has reaffirmed its commitment to global health through the announcement of the new Global Health Resilience initiative, the details of which are currently being developed.
They benefit from the Human Development Accelerator (HDX), which facilitates investment in infrastructure and enables a better environment for health systems, as well as improved manufacturing capacities for health products and technologies. The European Commission is making available €750 million to support vaccine and pharmaceutical manufacturing under the Human Development Accelerator (HDX) guarantee facility.
Background
Africa imports 99% of its vaccines and 70% – 90% of its medicines. According to the World Health Organization, over 50% of people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to essential medicines. The Manufacturing and Access to Vaccines, Medicines and Health Technologies (‘MAV+') initiative offers a comprehensive, 360-degree approach to tackle barriers on supply, demand and enabling environment. The overall objective of the initiative is to facilitate access to quality, safe, effective and affordable health products as outlined in the UN's Sustainable Development Goal target 3.8. Supporting access to essential health products and technologies is in alignment with the development objectives and geo-political priorities shared by both the EU and the African Union.
Since its launch, MAV+ has invested €1.97 billion in supporting the development of both manufacturing and the institutional ecosystem equally in its six priority African countries (Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda and Egypt) as well as at regional and continental level. The implementation of the initiative is a key priority of the EU Global Health strategy, which is a fundamental part of the Global Gateway strategy, and of the African Union – European Union Innovation Agenda. The Manufacturing and Access to Vaccines, Medicines and Health Technologies initiative forms part of the Team Europe Initiative on the EU-AU Health Partnership.
Global Gateway Forum
The Global Gateway Forum brings together an assembly of leaders from the European Union and across the globe, alongside key stakeholders from the private sector, civil society, thought leaders, financial institutions, and international organisations to promote global investment in infrastructure - hard and soft - to deliver on the SDGs and sustainable growth and resilience worldwide.
Global Gateway
Global Gateway is the EU's positive offer to reduce the worldwide investment disparity and boost smart, clean and secure connections in digital, energy and transport sectors, and to strengthen health, education and research systems.
The Global Gateway strategy embodies a Team Europe approach that brings together the European Union, EU Member States, and European development finance institutions. Together, we aim to mobilise up to €300 billion in public and private investments from 2021 to 2027, creating essential links rather than dependencies, and closing the global investment gap.
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Details
- Publication date
- 10 October 2025
- Author
- Directorate-General for International Partnerships