The European Medicines Agency's endorsement comes weeks after it began evaluating extending use of the vaccine, developed with Germany's BioNTech, to include 12- to 15-year-olds. It is already being used in the European Union for those aged 16 and older.
Inoculating children and young people is considered a critical step toward reaching "herd immunity" and taming the pandemic.
Earlier on Friday, German daily Die Welt reported that the Commission was shortly to sign contracts to buy up to 1.8 billion doses, but did not say with which company.
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are already supplying the EU with mRNA vaccines and German biotech firm CureVac is seeking EU approval for its mRNA shot.
There were only a limited number of infections in Israel caused by the so-called South African variant - known as B.1.351 - so they were not able to evaluate effectiveness against this variant.
In terms of population covered, Israel is leading the world in its vaccination programme, thanks in part to an agreement to share data with Pfizer and BioNTech.
So far, only the American-German Pfizer/BioNTech jab has been administered, with health care workers across Mexico and teachers in the southern part of the country having received the jab.
Africa CDC Director John Nkengasong said the 16 countries had asked for a total of a total 114 million doses under the AU's Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT).
"Our hope is that in the next two to three weeks, they should be having their vaccines," he told a virtual news conference.
The distribution list includes doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, licensed to the Serum Institute of India, Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine.
The distribution aims to cover an average of 3.3% of total population of 145 countries by mid-2021.
The coronavirus pandemic is showing no signs of slowing down, with infections surging past 94 million and more than two million deaths, and Europe among the hardest-hit parts of the world.
The new week-long stay at home orders affecting about 18 million people in Shijiazhuang and Xingtai come as cases spike ahead of the Lunar New Year, when hundreds of millions criss-cross the country to visit family and friends.