Following successful deployments in South Africa to manage Covid-19 vaccinations and in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Nigeria to manage infant inoculations, Vodacom Group will collaborate with AUDA-NEPAD to develop digital infrastructure to manage vaccinations across up to 55 countries.
The launch of mVacciNation, founded by Mezzanine, a Vodacom Group company, is the first project in a public-private partnership between Vodacom Group and AUDA-NEPAD to accelerate Africa’s digital transformation and create resilience in the post-Covid era.
“Vodacom has been at the forefront of supporting governments where we work to curb the spread of Covid-19,” said Shameel Joosub, CEO of Vodacom Group. Making our mVacciNation platform accessible to all African countries would have a long-term positive impact on the continent’s digital health infrastructure. Even in resource-constrained environments, our contribution would boost African countries’ capacity to distribute vaccines, control outbreaks, and conduct surveillance during this pandemic and beyond.”
“The response to the Covid-19 crisis has greatly accelerated the adoption of frontier technologies,” said Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, CEO of AUDA-NEPAD.
Africa’s thriving digital sector provides excellent opportunities for public-private collaborations to aid in the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis and to address crucial continental priorities. As the African Union’s development agency, we serve as a conduit for connecting innovators and governments in order to scale up and localize these solutions.”
To ensure that people receive the right vaccine at the right time and place, mVacciNation has two main components and a control tower.
When someone is vaccinated, their digital record is modified, and if a second dose is needed, mVacciNation automatically schedules and sends an SMS reminder.
Via the National Department of Health’s EVDS, South Africa is the first country to use mVacciNation for Covid-19 vaccines. In that region, health workers are among the first to be vaccinated. To date, nearly 279 000 Covid-19 vaccines have been administered.
The mVacciNation platform will stay in place after it has been installed to help countries better handle future pandemics and other large-scale health programs like infant inoculations. The Ministries of Health in Tanzania, Mozambique, and Nigeria have all used mVacciNation to boost infant immunisation rates.
In those countries, over 1.3 million vaccinations were reported, with 262,000 children registered and vaccinated with the help of mVacciNation.
On April 21, 2021, an African Union Member State webinar will be held to share insights and lessons learned in the roll-out of mVaccination.
Interested parties can learn more about mVacciNation and register for the webinar here.