Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), has, on the sidelines of the African Union Extraordinary Health Summit in Accra, lauded President John Dramani Mahama for his visionary leadership in championing Africa’s Health Sovereignty.

He also commended President Mahama for initiating the Accra Reset Initiative and launching the Free Primary Healthcare, which was aimed at ensuring universal health coverage in the country.

He made the commendation during a meeting with President Mahama at the Presidency in Accra.

The Director-General also commended President Mahama for instituting the Ghana Medical Trust Fund as part of efforts to reduce the cost of the disease burden of non-communicable diseases.

In addition, he praised President Mahama for his soft spot for health and the commitment that he had for health.

Dr Ghebreyesus reiterated that when there was the commitment from the top, like what President Mahama was doing changes happened.

“And it’s not without any reason that it’s happening. It’s because of your commitment. So thank you so much.”

He commended President Mahama for showing solidarity with the world health body by gracing the WHO General Assembly Meeting.

The Director-General noted that the world health body would continue to work with President Mahama to support him.

“But there are countries also who have now identified what you’re doing as a best practice and coming here to learn. And our office is facilitating, including my own country. My own country has been here to learn from the insurance system.” He said.

“So it’s very important to have to learn from each other. And we will continue to facilitate that. But there is a lot of interest from other countries also to come and see what’s happening here in Ghana.”

President Mahama lauded Dr Ghebreyesus for the good work he was doing as the Director-General of the WHO.

He said he initiated the Accra Reset Initiative as part of efforts to end Africa’s foreign aid dependency by establishing genuine health sovereignty.

He noted that the Government had made quite good progress through uncapping the National Health Insurance Levy, which had led to a tremendous increase in funding to the health sector.

This, he said, also contributed towards the establishment of the Ghana Medical Trust Fund (MahamaCares), as part of efforts to address the disease burden of non-communicable diseases in the country.