President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa has urged African countries to prioritize efforts to produce their own vaccines.
He said the best way to vaccinate the entire population on the continent is for African countries to start producing their own vaccines.
Speaking at the Ghana-South Africa business forum in Accra on Saturday December 4, he said “The fastest way to vaccinate our population is if we are allowed to manufacture our own vaccines and at the same time build our own domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities.
“As African leaders, we have to adopt strategies for a resilient recovery and one of the best ways of doing so is if we manufacture our own vaccines.”
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had said earlier said that, the global shortage of coronavirus vaccines meant Ghana must develop its capacity to produce its own vaccines domestically, and reduce the dependence on foreign supplies.
He said Ghana must be self-sufficient in this regard in the future, and prepare better to deal with any such occurrences in the future.
To this end, he said in an address to the nation on Sunday July 25 that “the Committee I established, under the leadership of the world-renowned Ghanaian scientist, Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, to investigate Ghana’s potential as a vaccine manufacturing hub, to meet national and regional needs, has presented its preliminary report which, amongst others, recommends the establishment of a National Vaccine Institute to spearhead this development.
“Government has committed to inject seed funding of some twenty-five million United States dollars (US$25 million) this year into this whole enterprise.”
By Laud Nartey|editors.3news.com|Ghana
