The Director-General of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa-CDC) has lauded President John Dramani Mahama’s visionary leadership in transforming Ghana’s health sector.

Dr Jean Kaseya gave the commendation during a press conference after paying a courtesy call on President Mahama at the Presidency in Accra, during his official working visit to Ghana.

The Africa-CDC Director-General was accompanied to the Presidency by Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, Ghana’s Minister of Health.

“I’m so impressed, so impressed by President Mahama. This is why I told him I would come to visit you in Ghana, and I want you, the media, to say that someone who came from the African Union, someone who is the leader of health in Africa, is impressed by what Ghana is doing,” Dr Kaseya said.

He said he was committed to publishing a draft article that would be published in the Lancet Journal of Medicine to support President Mahama's visionary leadership in the health sector, because it was time for the world to know that something was moving in Africa.

Touching on the production of local vaccines, Dr Kaseya commended Ghana’s efforts and that even by appointing the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the National Vaccine Institute was a plus for the country.

“Minister, we are so proud of you. And we know if we continue to do that, we can bring all countries together,” Dr Kaseya said.

He expressed gratitude to President Mahama for accepting to record the message of a meeting with all Health Ministers in Geneva to discuss the issue of local manufacturing.

He said in 20 years' time Gates Foundation, which supports vaccine development and global access, would stop, and the Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, support for Ghana was scheduled to transition out by 2030.

This, the Africa-CDC Director-General reiterated, was a wake-up call for Africa to champion the production of its vaccine needs.

“It means it’s the end of donors coming to give us money. It’s not time for us to start thinking by ourselves. When Gates stops, Gavi will stop, and so many other programmes will stop. We need to bring these two agendas together.”

He said the two main agendas on the table were local manufacturing of vaccines and financing.

Dr Kaseya said during his meeting with the President, the President indicated that he would champion the two agendas – local vaccines production and financing.

He underscored the African Union and the Africa-CDC’s commitment to support Ghana and to share the good news and experiences.

On his part, Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, the Minister of Health, said Ghana was strategically positioned now to manufacture its own vaccines.

He said the Government had established what they call the National Vaccine Institute; hence, they were well-placed to produce their own vaccines.

Adding that they had other leading pharmaceutical companies who had taken the lead in that respect.

He said Dr Kaseya’s visit and the objectives of the Africa-CDC align very well with one of the priorities of the President by putting in place a robust mechanism to have a robust healthcare system to be able to respond promptly to pandemics and to ensure that they have health security in this country.

Mr Akandoh hailed Africa-CDC’s continued support for Ghana, highlighting several key contributions, such as the $2.4 million to strengthen Ghana’s primary healthcare system.

“We are at the moment training, or we have trained about 400 epidemiologists, and it is by their assistance. They raised not less than $400,000 to train such people,” the Minister said.