The initiative focuses on East and Southern Africa, with production facilities in Kenya and Tanzania aimed at increasing medical oxygen access across the region.
UNITAD has unveiled a groundbreaking US$22 million investment to transform medical oxygen access in sub-Saharan Africa through the East African Program on Oxygen Access (EAPOA). The initiative, launched on October 22, 2024, is driven by three leading oxygen manufacturers from Kenya and Tanzania, and will significantly boost liquid oxygen production across the region, starting with new liquid oxygen production facilities in Mombasa, and Nairobi, Kenya.
The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) will lead on implementation together with the Governments of Kenya and Tanzania, PATH, and other development partners to ensure the program’s success in expanding access to oxygen across the region. MedAccess will provide innovative financing, such as volume guarantees, to ensure sustainable supply at affordable prices.
Medical oxygen is a lifesaving essential medicine without substitute. It is used to treat a wide range of infectious diseases and chronic heart and lung conditions including pneumonia, COVID-19, advanced HIV infection, severe forms of tuberculosis, and malaria. Oxygen is also vital for maternal and newborn survival as well as surgery, emergency, and critical care.
Yet many parts of sub-Saharan Africa remain severely under-resourced. With some countries accessing less than 10% of the oxygen they need, the EAPOA initiative not only aims to tackle immediate shortages but also establishes a long-term, sustainable solution to meet the region’s growing demand for oxygen.
At the core of the new EAPOA program is the development of a regional network of liquid oxygen production facilities – known as air separation units – strategically positioned to ensure medical oxygen reaches underserved communities. New facilities in Mombasa and Nairobi, Kenya, as well as Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, will serve as key hubs for the production and distribution of liquid medical oxygen. These facilities will not only supply their home countries but also neighboring nations, including Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia, making a significant regional impact.
“The Mombasa facility is just the beginning of a larger effort to transform oxygen access across Africa,” said Unitaid Executive Director Dr. Philippe Duneton. “Medical oxygen is critical for saving lives, yet too many health facilities in this region struggle with access. By working together with Kenyan and Tanzanian manufacturers and other partners, we are ensuring that oxygen is no longer a luxury but a basic right for all patients, especially in times of critical need.”
The program utilizes a blended financing model that combines grant funding awarded to Unitaid by Canada and Japan, and concessional loans, with support from MedAccess through volume guarantees. This approach is designed to strengthen the capacity of small- to medium-sized oxygen suppliers, including three key local manufacturers – Hewatele and Synergy in Kenya, and Tanzania Oxygen Limited in Tanzania.
Together, these manufacturers will expand production capacity threefold by over 60 tons per day, enabling the treatment of thousands of additional patients each month, while also lowering the price of oxygen by up to 27% across the region.
“The key role of medical oxygen at all levels of care cannot be emphasized. Kenya’s drive towards universal health coverage requires uninterrupted access to all health products and technologies including medical oxygen,” said Harry Kimtai, Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Health of Kenya.
“We are delighted as the Ministry of Health to note that this new liquid oxygen manufacturing plant will boost availability all around the country and not just the Coast region. I congratulate UNITAD and all its partners for making funding available and providing technical support to make this possible. We look forward to working together to continue advancing initiatives that boost availability of other health products and technologies apart from medical Oxygen”
By increasing production capacity and fostering competition in the regional oxygen market, the program builds on significant investments in oxygen equipment made in the region during the COVID-19 pandemic by Unitaid, The Global Fund, The World Bank, USAID, and other partners, and will ensure that lifesaving oxygen becomes a core component of health care delivery in the region.
Over the next decade, the initiative has the potential to save up to 154,000 lives in Kenya and Tanzania alone, addressing life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia, preterm birth complications, and surgical emergencies. It will also ensure that the countries in East and Southern Africa are better prepared for future respiratory pandemics through the enhanced health security that regional and local production of medical oxygen provides.
The program is part of a broader Unitaid strategy to increase regional and local production of essential health products in Africa, in line with continental initiatives to enhance health security, such as Africa CDC’s Partnership for the Harmonization of African Health Products Manufacturing.
“The Project will focus on three main aspects ensuring its sustainability,” said CHAI Country Director and Vice President of East and Southern Africa, Gerald Macharia. “Well-placed infrastructure selected in partnership with Ministries of Health, longer-term budgeting for Liquid Oxygen supply, and the grant/loan/volume guarantees available to companies—which aim to facilitate lower pricing, patient access, and regular payment for services in the long-term,”
The Mombasa plant, one of four planned liquid oxygen facilities under the program, broke ground today. Once operational, it will distribute medical oxygen to health facilities through an enhanced delivery network, ensuring that even remote and underserved areas receive the oxygen they desperately need. As the program scales, these efforts will reinforce healthcare systems across East Africa, helping to build resilience against future health crises.
