Ghana is strategically positioned now to manufacture its own vaccines, Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has disclosed.

He said Ghana had established the National Vaccine Institute; hence, the nation was well-placed to produce its own vaccines.

Moreover, other leading pharmaceutical companies in the country had also taken the lead in that respect.

Mr. Akandoh disclosed at a press conference at the Presidency in Accra, during a courtesy call on President John Dramani Mahama by Dr Jean Kaseya, Director-General, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa-CDC).

The Africa-CDC Director-General is in the country to sign a data-sharing agreement between Ghana and Africa-CDC.

Mr Akandoh said: “As we all recall during the pandemic, we have countries who looked into our eyes and told us that, look, not until they satisfy their citizens, they were not going to allow the export of vaccines into our country, and therefore I think that we must learn lessons from that to be able to prepare adequately for any future pandemic”.

“We also think that we should be able to build or scale up our primary health care services as we roll out the free primary health care.”

He said the Mahama Cares also needs some kind of collaboration for its sustainability, and it could also be an innovation that could also be emulated by other African countries.

He said the resource support from other partner donors or development partners were dwindling.

“We all know that we have been signalled that by the year 2030, we’ll be exiting Gavi, and therefore there is a need for us to find a sustainable way of financing our vaccines in this country.

This, he said, was one of the ways they could collaborate well with Africa-CDC to ensure that they had sustainable sources of funding for their vaccines, saying “and if we do, then other countries can also emulate same”.

Mr Akandoh said Dr Kaseya’s visit to Ghana and the objectives of the Africa-CDC aligned 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 we have health security in this country.

He said that as a country, they had collaborated so well with Africa-CDC and that they had enjoyed some support from Africa-CDC for some time now.

Highlighting that, Mr Akandoh said Ghana had enjoyed about $2.4 million to strengthen its primary healthcare system.

He said they were at the moment training or had trained about 400 epidemiologists through the Africa-CDC’s assistance.

He said they raised not less than $400,000 to train such people.

He said the Africa-CDC had also assisted Ghana to raise not less than $1.6 million for the procurement and delivery of coaching and IT equipment as a country.

Mr Akandoh said that by the grace of God, Ghana was playing a vital role in terms of health in Africa.

He said the School of Public Health at the University of Ghana was currently serving as the sub-regional centre for training epidemiologists.

Mr Akandoh said the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) was also at the maturity level for what was playing a vital role in promoting continental health security.

He said the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was one of the strongest health financing schemes within the sub-region, declaring that “other countries are also learning from us”.

“We are leading by example, not only the National Health Insurance Scheme, but at the moment, as you all know, it is His Excellency John Dramani Mahama’s priority area to roll out what we call the Free Primary Healthcare, which we believe that that will catalyze or be a catalyst to arriving at the Universal Health Coverage on time,” the Minister said.

He also mentioned the Mahama Cares (Ghana Medical Trust Fund), which was set-up by the Government as part of efforts to relieve the financial burden of sufferers of chronic diseases (Non-communicable Diseases).

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

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