Africa needs £9bn to buy enough vaccines to stop Covid-19 spread, say World Bank and IMF

Africa needs around £9bn ($12bn) to buy and distribute Covid-19 vaccines to reach enough people to stop the coronavirus spreading, according to a new paper by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The world's rich G20 countries should also extend a debt moratorium until the end of the year to help the poorest countries through the pandemic, the paper said. The money needed by Africa roughly is roughly the same as debt repayments already deferred by 45 of the poorest countries, the bodies said. Meanwhile a new Rockefeller Foundation report found that moves to bolster the IMF's emergency reserves could provide billions for poor countries to vaccinate, at no added cost to rich countries.