The first doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 shots to be dispatched to Africa under the global COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme were to arrive in Rwanda on Wednesday, as efforts to inoculate the world's poorest nations accelerate.

The batch of 102 960 doses will arrive in Kigali later on Wednesday, the health ministry said, hours after a flight carrying 240 000 doses AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India also landed.