Vodacom Group, has partnered with the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) to roll-out the mVacciNation project, to manage COVID-19 vaccinations across 55 countries in Africa.
mVacciNation, which was developed by Mezzanine, a Vodacom Group company, has been successfully deployed in South Africa and in Mozambique, Tanzania and Nigeria – to manage infant inoculations and becomes the first public-private partnership between Vodacom and AUDA-NEPAD.
In a statement, Vodacom Group CEO, Shameel Joosub, said, “Vodacom has been at the forefront of helping governments where we operate to curb the spread of Covid-19. Making our mVacciNation platform available to all African countries will significantly enhance the continent’s digital health infrastructure for the long-term.”
“Our contribution will improve the capability of African countries in this pandemic and beyond for vaccine distribution, management and surveillance, even in resource-constrained settings,” he added.
Vodacom says, mVacciNation has two core components and a control tower, to ensure people get the right vaccine, at the right place and time.
A supply chain component provides real-time information for health workers of all available vaccines and medical equipment and a beneficiary management component allows individuals to register on the platform and assigns them to vaccine service points on a specific day and time.
Each time someone is vaccinated their digital record is updated and, if a further dose is required, mVacciNation automatically schedules and sends a follow-up date via SMS. Once vaccination is completed, the individual will receive electronic certification.
With a continental mandate and reach, AUDA-NEPAD will facilitate government engagement to link mVacciNation to policy and practice for accelerated roll-out of the solution to African Union Member States.
Also commenting, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, CEO of AUDA-NEPAD, said, “The response to the Covid-19 crisis has significantly accelerated the adoption of frontier technologies. Africa’s booming digital sector offers great opportunities for public-private partnerships to help build resilience in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis and respond to critical continental priorities. As the development agency for the African Union, we act as a channel to connect innovators and governments to roll-out and localise these solutions.”
In South Africa nearly 279 000 Covid-19 vaccinations have been completed to date using the mVacciNation platform.
Over 1.3 million vaccinations have been recorded in Tanzania, Mozambique, and Nigeria as the countries sought to increase immunisation rates in children of which 262,000 were children registered and vaccinated supported by mVacciNation.
Once installed, the mVacciNation platform will remain in place to help countries better manage future pandemics and other large-scale health programmes such as infant inoculations.
