US vaccine maker Moderna has announced that it will build its first mRNA jab-manufacturing facility in Africa after signing an agreement with Kenya's government to produce up to 500 million doses a year, reports AFP.

The company said it expected to invest $500 million in the new facility, which will produce vaccines for the continent of 1.3 billion people whose population has been largely shut out of access to Covid-19 jabs.

Moderna said it hopes to use the facility to supply doses of its Covid-19 jab to African nations as early as next year, in a bid to boost vaccine coverage on the world's least immunised continent.