EAC Secretariat Liberat Mfumukeko (right) shake hands with German deputy ambassador to Tanzania Jorg Herera after signing an agreement to fund health and education programmes in the region. PHOTO | JUMUIYA
The EAC Secretariat also signed another agreement worth $16 million for integration and preparedness for pandemics.
Some $105 million will go to immunisation against Rotavirus, Pentavalent, Pneumococcal and Measles.
The grant, which is meant for reducing child mortality, targets newborns.
The East African Community Secretariat has signed an agreement that will see the German government fund health and education programmes in the region to the tune of $128 million.
The EAC Secretariat also signed another agreement worth $16 million for integration and preparedness for pandemics.
Liberat Mfumukeko signed both agreements on behalf of the EAC, while the German deputy ambassador to Tanzania Jorg Herera, signed the first agreement on behalf of Germany.
Mike Falke signed the second agreement on behalf of the EAC-GIZ (German Society for International Cooperation) programmes.
Some $105 million will go to immunisation against Rotavirus, Pentavalent, Pneumococcal and Measles.
The grant, which is meant for reducing child mortality, targets newborns.
“Vaccines procurement may take place in 2019 and 2020,” Mr Mfumukeko said.
The EAC Regional Centre of Excellence for Health Supply Chain Management based at the University of Rwanda in Kigali will receive $15.5 million from the first grant.
Another EAC-German project dubbed Regional Network Reference Laboratories for Communicable Disease will receive $2.2 million in support of Ebola preparedness.
The Academic Centre for Digital Innovation in East Africa project based at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology in Arusha will get $5.3 million. Of the $16 million grant, $12.3 million will go to EAC integration programmes.
“GIZ and the EAC Secretariat have been developing and managing key projects working with partners across the region with a focus on making the Common Market, Customs Union and integration a reality,” Mr Falke said.
