The Institut Pasteur of Dakar (IPD), based in Senegal, has reached a deal with US company MedInstill for the bottling of Covid-19 shots, Reuters quotes a EU document as showing, marking a step to becoming a fully-fledged maker of coronavirus vaccines for Africa.

The European Union is a major financial backer of the project which aims to enable IPD to manufacture 300 million Covid-19 vaccines a year and reduce Africa's reliance on imported vaccines. IPD, however, has yet to secure a partnership with a Covid vaccine patent holder to produce shots.

African countries have so far received a tiny portion of Covid-19 shots produced globally, as wealthy nations have bought most of the output. South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare, which produces the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, is Africa's only Covid vaccine producer at present.