The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo has become the world’s first recipient of the coronavirus vaccine from Covax, a scheme to procure and distribute inoculations for poorer countries.
A wider Covax programme will begin in Ghana on Tuesday but health workers in Ivory Coast are being vaccinated on Monday.
Mr Akufo-Addo has urged people to get inoculated and not to believe conspiracy theories casting doubt on the programme.
Nigeria is due to take delivery of nearly four million doses of vaccine later this week.
Twenty-four African countries will soon receive Covid-19 vaccines from the UN-backed Covax programme.
They include Kenya and Nigeria that will receive the vaccines on Tuesday.
Kenya will get 1.25 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine and vaccinations are expected to start immediately, according to Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe.
Priority will be given to frontline health workers and the elderly.
Nigeria will receive 3.92m vaccine doses, becoming the third West-African country to benefit from the facility.
The country expects to receive a total of 16m doses from Covax in the next few months.
Ivory Coast on Monday became the first country to rollout vaccines offered by the programme.
