Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday called on private sector players to join hands with African governments to co-invest in the continent’s health industrialization to boost health care and health service delivery on the continent.
Mahama said at the opening of the two-day World Health Expo (WHX) Leaders Africa Summit in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, that Africa seeks a new paradigm of partnership, one that is defined not by dependency, but by co-investment, innovation, and shared values.
“So we call on vaccine manufacturers to partner with us to build African vaccine production hubs. We call on pharmaceutical companies to expand into biologics, generics, and essential medicine manufacturing in Africa,” Mahama urged.
Furthermore, the Ghanaian president urged diagnostics innovators, biotechnology firms, and medical device producers to establish assembly plants with research and development (R&D) centers and fabrication facilities in Africa to ensure easy access for African health institutions.
Mahama said the continent has learned valuable lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, including that, during global health emergencies, the continent becomes the last to receive support, highlighting the need for a paradigm shift.
According to him, the conditions are now favorable for private equity firms, venture capital, and philanthropists to co-finance Africa’s health industrialization.
He added, “The African Continental Free Trade Area offers a unified market of about 1.3 billion; a growing innovation ecosystem is ready for acceleration. The African Medicines Agency is strengthening regulatory harmony, and most importantly, political will across the continent is very strong and aligned, and so the table is set.”
He expressed confidence in the imagination and ingenuity of young African innovators, artificial intelligence (AI) developers, medical technology creators, and digital health entrepreneurs to shape the future of Africa’s healthcare to build a new health order.
“A healthier Africa will be a more prosperous Africa; a more resilient Africa will strengthen global security, not hurt it. A more innovative Africa will enrich the global health ecosystem,” Mahama emphasized.
Health officials from various African countries and officials from the Africa Center for Disease Control and other allied organizations are attending the summit.