President William Ruto on Thursday, March 30, confirmed plans to construct a Moderna vaccine facility in Nairobi.

Speaking during the American chamber of commerce regional business summit, the Head of State said Moderna and the Kenyan government had finalised a deal reached last year to set up the  $500 million (about Ksh66 billion) facility in the country.

President Ruto said the factory will be the first of its kind in the African continent.

“I want to highlight the medical and pharmaceutical sector where I have a major announcement to make. It is with pleasure that I announce a finalised deal between Moderna and the Government of Kenya to build a $500 million mRNA vaccine facility in Nairobi area,” Ruto said.

“This will be the only such facility on the African continent and, for Moderna, their first factory outside the United States. Moderna’s investment will be a catalyst for the medical and pharmaceutical industry in Africa. This is historic. This is big. This is my administration’s vision for the future of Kenya.”

In a separate statement, Moderna said the Kenyan facility will be the company’s first mRNA manufacturing facility in Africa and will produce up to 500 million doses of vaccine per year.

The US-based company expects the new facility to enable drug substance and drug product manufacturing for Kenya and the African continent.

In addition, this facility will have a surge capacity to rapidly scale and respond to public health emergencies on the continent and around the world.

“The finalization of our agreement with the Government of the Republic of Kenya is a key pillar of our global public health strategy, where we hope to bring mRNA innovation to the people of Africa in areas of high unmet need, such as acute respiratory infections, as well as persistent infectious diseases like HIV and outbreak threats such as Zika and Ebola,” Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna, said.

“This also demonstrates our confidence in the investment climate in Kenya and the importance of utilizing mRNA technology to build resilience in healthcare security in Africa. We are also grateful for the leadership of the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya, Meg Whitman, and Samantha Power, in her role as Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development for their instrumental support of this project.”