Health Minister, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, says President John Mahama’s leadership is driving a decisive shift toward local pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing, positioning health security as a core pillar of Ghana’s industrial transformation agenda.

Speaking at the African Trade Summit, where he delivered a keynote address on the theme “Health Security as Industrial Strategy: Manufacturing Medicines for Africa and the World,” the Health Minister said the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the dangers of overreliance on imported medicines, stressing that countries without local production capacity remain vulnerable to global supply shocks.

According to Mr Akandoh, the pandemic underscored the high cost of dependence on external supply chains, not only in lost lives, but also in jobs and long-term economic stability.

He argued that health security can no longer be treated purely as a social intervention but must be pursued as a strategic industrial objective.

He noted that President Mahama’s Reset Agenda directly confronts these vulnerabilities by prioritising domestic pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing, supported by deliberate policy choices and targeted investments.

The approach, he said, is laying the groundwork for what he described as “true health sovereignty” for Ghana and the wider African continent.

Mr Akandoh explained that strengthening local production capacity will not only improve access to essential medicines but also stimulate industrial growth, create jobs, and reduce Africa’s exposure to external disruptions in global health supply systems.