Ghanaian President John Mahama urged African governments, financiers and manufacturers to build ‘health sovereignty’ on Saturday, warning that shrinking foreign aid has made greater self-reliance increasingly urgent.
“Each year, tens of billions of dollars leave African economies to purchase medicines and vaccines from abroad, meanwhile traditional donor assistance is declining,” Mahama said at the Alamein Africa Forum on Saturday.
He argued that the funding squeeze should be treated as an investment opportunity, pointing to Africa’s growing population and the African Continental Free Trade Area as a vast potential market for locally produced pharmaceuticals.
“African pharmaceuticals represent a high-yield, resilient sector that is ready and open for investment,” he said.
Mahama said expanding local production could strengthen health security, create jobs and cut Africa’s dependence on imported medicines and vaccines.
“The WHO reports that while Africa lacks six million health workers, nearly 943,000 – that is almost one million – trained healthcare professionals and science graduates remain unemployed in Africa,” Mahama noted.
“Local manufacturing generates jobs in research and development, clinical trials, engineering, biotech, helping retain talent and employ youth. It means affordability and dignity,” he continued.
The Ghanaian leader added that stronger domestic manufacturing could also prevent African countries being pushed to the back of the queue during health emergencies.
“African mothers and children will no longer wait at the end of the global queue for the lifesaving vaccines or therapies during crisis, as seen in the COVID-19 and the recent Ebola outbreaks,” he stressed.
“Local production reduces logistics costs, removes intermediary margins, and delivers affordable, high-quality medicines directly to patients across Africa. And so we do not need to look outside our continent for proof that this can work,” he added.
Mahama called on governments, financiers, regulators and manufacturers to develop investment mechanisms, accelerate implementation of the African Medicines Agency and build the continent’s capacity to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients.
“Let us stop treating health as a line item expense in our budget, let us build the factories, integrate supply chains, fund innovators, and secure our citizens’ future,” Mahama urged.
The three-day Alamein Africa Forum began on Friday in the northern Egyptian city of New Alamein, bringing together around 1,500 officials, business leaders, investors and representatives of financial institutions from across Africa.
The gathering features high-level conferences focused on economic development and continental integration.
Source: Viory
