The National Biosafety Authority (NBA) has presented Ghana’s Fifth National Report (5NR) on implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, describing how it has moved from a biosafety framework on paper to a functioning regulator that enforces decisions.

As a Party to the Cartagena Protocol, Ghana is required, from time to time, to report to the Secretariat of the Convention of Biological Diversity on how it is implementing the treaty. The Fifth National Report, 5NR, covers the period of 2019 to February 2026.

Addressing a dissemination of Ghana’s Fifth National Report (5NR) on the implementation the

Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety in Accra, Mr Kwame Dei Asamoah Okyere, Chief Executive Officer of NBA explained that, in compiling 5NR, Ghana answered 92 per cent of the questions that applied to it, 22 areas of the Protocol on which it reports, and 15 were fully implemented with most of the rest partially in place.

The report, he said, was submitted in February 2026.

“Our Third Report of 2015 and our Fourth Report of 2019, tells a far more important story than any single report could. It is the story of a decade, simply put, Ghana has moved from building a biosafety framework on paper to operating it as a functioning regulatory system that makes, and enforces, decisions,” he said.

Mr Asamoah Okyere noted that over the period of 10 ten-year trajectory that Ghana had submitted its 5NR, the Authority had issued nine specialised biosafety guidelines, took 22 regulatory decisions on imports of genetically modified materials for food, feed and processing, and trained over 100 professionals in risk assessment, risk management, and the detection of living modified organisms.

“A landmark came in 2024, when the Authority approved 14 genetically modified events for food, feed and processing, evidence of an end-to-end capacity to receive applications, assess risk on the science, decide, and publish its determinations through the international Biosafety Clearinghouse”.

He said the NBA also extended its reach beyond Ghana’s borders, providing biosafety capacity-building support to Malawi in 2022, a shift from a country that once received assistance to one that now offers it.

He, however, urged stakeholders not to read 5NR on its own but read alongside the Third Report of 2015 and our Fourth Report of 2019, which confirmed Ghana’s story of a decade of success story.

In 2015, the NBA was operationalised after the Biosafety Act, Act 831 was passed in 2011; we were setting up with the drafting of implementing regulations, the institution was taking shape.

Mr Asamoah Okyere expressed concern about the fact that the Authority did not have a certified laboratory operating laboratory for the detection of living modified organisms, saying, “Our biosafety staffing remains below what the work demands.

He noted that predictable funding for capacity-building was not yet secured, while the Nagoya–Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress was also not yet in force though a draft instrument was pending.

Ms Mavis A. Agyemang, Senior Public Relations Officer, NBA, highlighted the successes of the Authority saying the Authority had nine specialised biosafety guidelines now in force, 22 regulatory decisions on LMO imports for food, feed, and processing, and more than 100 professionals trained in biosafety.