The Deputy Director of the Health Training Institutions Unit of the Ministry of Health, Mr Ebenezer Akuffo has hinted of a health entrepreneurship course for all health training institutions.

Mr Akuffo is confident the course, which will be in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative, will equip trainees with the requisite skills to create jobs in the health sector.

The primary objective of the Mastercard Foundation Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative is to build and strengthen the capacity of healthcare students and professionals to meet the growing demand for Primary Health Care (PHC) in Ghana.

So far, one hundred and forty primary healthcare workers and tutors from KNUST-affiliated health training institutions have received training in health entrepreneurship.

Also, four hundred students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology have also received entrepreneurial training in sustainable business start-ups

These programmes were spearheaded by the Health Entrepreneurship pillar of the Mastercard Foundation Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative.

The Health Entrepreneurship pillar headed by Prof. Wilberforce Owusu-Ansah, is one of the three pillars of the Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative.

The pillar aims to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and culture that supports entrepreneurs to create meaningful innovations and employment opportunities in the health sector. Through the interventions, promising entrepreneurs will be nurtured to build resilient health ventures.

Speaking at a retreat organized by Mastercard Foundation Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative in Kwawu, Mr Akuffo noted a knowledge gap in the training of health professionals in taking up entrepreneurial ventures in the health sector.

“Our students are taught some form of entrepreneurship but the focus has not been in the health sector. We hope to seek your support to introduce a health entrepreneurship course in our institutions.

“We’ll collaborate to make sure the schools which take part will have our support. We hope to see students becoming more productive so that they won’t finish and be looking for some money from the government alone,” he said.

KNUST is one of the eight partners of the Higher Education Collaborative in Health with the aim to contribute to all three pillars of the health strategy: Health Employment, Health Entrepreneurship, and Health Ecosystems.

The Health Ecosystem pillar lead by Dr. Joseph Owusu also aims to train and prepare a new generation of talented professionals with the broad sets of skills required to drive equitable and inclusive growth.

The Health Employment pillar also lead by Dr. Kofi Akohene Mensah aims to expand and improve current capacities to train primary healthcare workers.

The 3-day retreat provided the platform to forge effective strategies to fulfil the Collaborative’s ideals in the coming years.

The Principal Investigator of the Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative, Prof. Ellis Owusu-Dabo emphasized the importance of equity and diversity in the operations of the Collaborative.

“For the Collaborative, issues of gender and persons with disabilities are very critical to us. It’s important we put some of these things into action as a country,” he said.