President John Dramani Mahama has said the development of local pharmaceutical and health-product manufacturing can help Africa tackle unemployment among skilled young people while strengthening the continent’s capacity to respond to future health emergencies.

According to President Mahama, Africa faces what he described as a “structural paradox” because the continent continues to experience shortages of health workers even as significant numbers of trained healthcare professionals and science graduates remain unemployed.

He said developing the health manufacturing ecosystem could create opportunities beyond traditional clinical practice.

“Africa currently faces a structural paradox,” President Mahama said. “While Africa lacks 6 million health workers, nearly 943,000 trained healthcare professionals and science graduates were unemployed in 2024.”

He said local manufacturing could provide employment in research and development, clinical trials, engineering and biotechnology.

The President further argued that domestic production would improve health security by reducing the continent’s dependence on overseas suppliers during global emergencies.

He pointed to the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and recent Ebola outbreaks as examples of situations in which African countries could be placed at the end of global supply chains when demand for vaccines and life-saving therapies surged.

Beyond employment and security, President Mahama said local production could improve affordability for ordinary citizens by reducing logistics costs and intermediary margins. “It means affordability and dignity,” he said.

“Local production reduces logistics costs, removes intermediary margins, and delivers affordable, high-quality medicines directly to patients across Africa.”

He therefore called for greater investment in manufacturing, research, biotechnology and other components of the regional health value chain.