Following the announcement by African Union (AU) chairperson President Cyril Ramaphosa on January 14 that the AU has secured a provisional 270-million Covid-19 vaccine doses for Africa through its Covid-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (Avatt), the Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) has, on behalf of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), started the Covid-19 vaccines pre-order programme for all AU member States. Trade finance institution African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) will facilitate payments by providing advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to $2-billion to the manufacturers on behalf of the member States.