Tuesday, September 8, 2026

COVID-19: Only 13 African countries have vaccinated 10% of their population, WHO reveals

The World Health Organisation blame the laggard mass inoculation on dearth of COVID-19 vaccines in the continent.

• September 19, 2021
Matshidiso Moeti
Matshidiso Moeti

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says only thirteen African countries has vaccinated more than 10 per cent of their country’s population.

This comes as the continent records over 8.1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases with more than 7.4 million recoveries and 357,000 deaths cumulatively.

In a tweet on its official Twitter page on Sunday, WHO blamed crippling vaccine supply shortage for the laggard vaccination exercise.

“13 African countries have reached the @WHO target of fully vaccinating more than 10% of its population against #COVID19 by the end of September. Crippling vaccine supply shortages have slowed down many countries in the Region,” WHO tweeted.

Amongst the countries to have fully vaccinated more than 10 per cent of their population include Seychelles, Mauritius, Morocco, Tunisia and Comoros.

Others are Cape Verde, Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana and Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mauritania and Equatorial Guinea.

However, Nigeria was not listed amongst the countries to have vaccinated more than 10 per cent of its population.

Nigeria which started its vaccination exercise in March after receiving its first batch of Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine has so far vaccinated only 0.7 per cent of its population.

Statistics by Johns Hopkins University and Our World in Data, showed that Nigeria has administered at least 3,967,013 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, implying that only 1.42 million Nigerians representing 0.7 per cent of the country’s population have been fully vaccinated.

Speaking on the development, the WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti in a tweet said the COVID-19 vaccination exercise was not fast enough.

Ms Moeti called on vaccine manufacturing countries to open the gates and help protect countries ‘facing the greatest risk’.

We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.

More from Peoples Gazette

farmers

Agriculture

FG tasks ECOWAS on leveraging financing strategies for agroecology

The federal government has urged stakeholders in the agriculture and finance sectors in the West Africa region to leverage financing strategies to enhance agroecology practices

Katsina State

Politics

Katsina youths pledge to deliver over 2 million votes to Atiku

“Katsina State is Atiku’s political base because it is his second home.”

Calabar Festival

Showbiz

First Bank backs Calabar entertainment conference, festival

First Bank has renewed its partnership with the Calabar Entertainment Conference and Festival as the event’s official banking partner for the second consecutive year.

House on fire in Kano

States

Multibillion-naira property salvaged from blaze in Kano: Firefighters

The Federal Fire Service says it salvaged a property worth N5.34 billion from three blazes recorded in Kano in August.

Jean-François Leroy

World

Jean-François Leroy who directed festival of photojournalism dies at 69

French journalist Jean-François Leroy, founder of Visa pour l’Image, a leading photojournalism festival, died after a long battle with cancer.

President Bola Tinubu

Politics

Niger Delta ex-activist seeks grassroots mobilisation for Tinubu

A former Niger Delta activist, Endurance Amagbein, has restated the need for grassroots mobilisation for Mr Tinubu of the APC ahead of the 2027 elections.

Troops

States

Troops repel ISWAP attack on military base in Pulka, Borno

Troops of Operation HADIN KAI have repelled an attack by suspected ISWAP terrorists on a military base in Pulka, Gwoza council area of Borno.

Burna Boy and Shakira

Showbiz

Shakira, Burna Boy’s ‘Dai Dai’ surpasses one billion YouTube views

Nigerian Afrobeats singer Burna Boy and Colombian singer Shakira have achieved a major milestone with their joint track, ‘Dai Dai’.