President Akufo-Addo has revealed that €20 million has been set aside to actualise the establishment of the National Vaccine Institute announced earlier.

Delivering his 27th address on measures taken to fight Covid-19, on Wednesday, President Akufo-Addo stated that the Institute will supervise domestic production of Covid-19 and other vaccines. He added that it will be led by the private sector and business community.

The funds for the National Vaccine Institute, he noted, was allocated to Ghana following discussions with the President of the European Investment Bank, Herr Werner Hoyer, on Ghana’s Covid-19 Response Plan.

President Akufo-Addo said that “an €82.5 million facility has been approved for Ghana by the Bank for use in the effort to strengthen healthcare delivery and the provision of specialist medical equipment and medicines across the country. Government has set aside €20 million of this to establish the National Vaccine Institute.”

To ensure Ghanaians are educated on the need for vaccinations and protection against Covid-19, President Akufo-Addo reiterated that the month of December has been dubbed the vaccination month as part of efforts to get people inoculated.

This, he said, is because so far, only 6,420,973 vaccine doses have been administered despite having about 17.7 million doses.

He stated that significant quantities of vaccines have been deployed to every corner of the country to ensure people get vaccinated.

“We have, thus, declared the month of December as the vaccination month, and we are rolling out an aggressive campaign of vaccination, so that as many Ghanaians as possible have the opportunity to be vaccinated. It is a race against time, but we are determined to accomplish it,” he added.

President Akufo-Addo advised the populace to dismiss the many conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 vaccines.

According to him, contrary to these unfounded theories, the vaccine is not purposed to kill anyone. Neither can it change one’s political affiliation.

“Indeed, as at Tuesday, 14th December, the Ghana Health Service has taken delivery of 17,736,710 vaccine doses. We are expecting an additional 8,529,090 doses by the end of the year. We have enough vaccines in the system. So, my fellow Ghanaians, I encourage each and every one of you to take advantage of this, and get vaccinated,” President Akufo-Addo added.