The United Kingdom has said it would be investing up to £20m in the African Union’s new ‘Africa anti-covid-19 fund’ to slow down the spread of coronavirus and save lives.
The British High Commission in Nigeria said in a statement that the funding was announced by UK International Development Secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
According to the statement, this makes the UK the largest national donor to the fund which was announced by Cyril Ramaphosa, Chairperson of the African Union (AU) and South Africa President, Cyril Ramaphosa, last month.
It said that the funds would support African leaders and technical experts to slow the spread of coronavirus and save lives in Africa and worldwide.
It said that the fund would tackle the pandemic by recruiting African health experts and deploying them where they are needed most thereby strengthening global tracking of the pandemic.
It noted that it would also combat potentially harmful misinformation, providing specialist with coronavirus training for health workers and making information about the virus more accessible to the public.
“As the UK faces its biggest peacetime challenge in tackling coronavirus, it’s never been more important to work with our partners in Africa to fight disease.
“No one is safe until we are all safe and this new funding and support for African leadership will help protect us all in the UK, Africa and around the world from further spread of the virus, “Trevelyan was quoted as saying in the statement.
She said the fund would also promote an evidence-based approach for surveillance, diagnosis, treatment and control of coronavirus in Africa.
