President Akufo-Addo says Ghana is ready to play her role in making the Pan-African Vaccine Manufacturing Project and has reaffirmed once again, his determination to make the project work successfully.

“As I said in Marburg, the Pan-African Vaccine Manufacturing Project fits perfectly with Ghana’s domestic vaccine development and manufacturing roadmap,” he said.

President Nana Akufo-Addo said this at the groundbreaking ceremony for the commencement of construction of a vaccine manufacturing plant in Kigali, Rwanda, on Thursday.

He expressed his gratitude to President Paul Kagame for the invitation to participate in the event.

President Akufo-Addo indicated that the commencement of construction “signals to the rest of the world the commencement of this end-to-end vaccine manufacturing facility, involving Rwanda, Senegal and Ghana.”

He indicated that the import of the Pan-African Project means that Ghana, Senegal and Rwanda must work together, the reason why the relationship between the Food and Drugs Authorities (FDA) of Ghana and Rwanda is being deepened with the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding on Friday, June 24.

“Through this, FDA Ghana, which achieved WHO Global Benchmarking Maturity Level Three in 2020, and is working hard to achieve Maturity Level Four by the end of this year, will assist FDA Rwanda to attain WHO Maturity Level Three as soon as possible. Both agencies will collaborate further in vaccine drug product manufacturing, fill, finish and lot release in their respective countries,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo continued, “Again, collaboration between our two countries resulted recently in a team from Rwanda visiting research institutions in Ghana, with the aim of strengthening institutional development and partnership towards vaccine discovery and advancement”.

In addition, the President revealed that Ghana’s research institutions are undergoing capacity-building to be ready for the discovery and development of vaccines and other biologicals, stating that “a consortium of Ghanaian pharmaceutical companies, led by DEKS Vaccines Ltd., is working closely with BioNTech Rwanda, BioNTech Germany and kENUP to fill, finish and package the drug product in Ghana from the plant here in Rwanda.”

He thanked BioNTech of Germany, kENUP Foundation, IFC, EIB and other financial institutions for working closely with African countries to enable the continent to achieve vaccine self-sufficiency.

“I assure all and sundry that Ghana is delighted to be part of this Pan-African Project to manufacture mRNA COVID, Malaria and TB vaccines from drug substance through drug product to fill, finish and package,” the President added.