By Juliet Ebirim

Nigerian music star, Chike; comedian, Pencil; social media influencer, Pamilerin and TikTok star, Jenni Frank have been selected to champion the mobilization of young African youths towards promoting COVID-19 vaccination in Africa.

African Union (AU) in conjunction with Trace TV is engaging the creative community in pushing the ‘Bingwa Initiative’ geared at increasing COVID-19 vaccination across Africa by 70 per cent in 2023.

The main strategy of the programme, which is in partnership with the African Centre for Disease Control (CDC), GIZ and MasterCard, is to get the continent’s young population mobilise their peers, families and communities for vaccination against the pandemic.
Speaking at a media parley in Lagos recently , Chike said “I’m so excited to be part of this, when people talk about vaccination, there are a lot of myths. I’m happy that Bingwa is doing this sensitisation. It is always better to be safe than sorry. It is less expensive to get the vaccine, which is free than to seek treatment. As global COVID restrictions loosen, we see a greater need for innovation to keep COVID-19 vaccinations on the agenda” he stated.
On her part, the acting Director of AU Commission’s Women, Gender and Youth Directorate, Ngwenya Nonkululeko, noted that the initiative is a response to the innovative ways requested by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during the AU Heads of State Summit in January 2022.

She recalled that the President called for mechanisms to increase COVID-19 vaccination rate to 70 per cent by 2023, adding that this sparked the idea for the AU COVID-19 Vaccination Bingwa Initiative.

Nonkululeko explained that a Bingwa activator is a vaccinated young person, who commits to mobilising at least 10 people to get vaccinated and using their resources to achieve set out results, including reaching the 70 per cent target.