The government is expected to scale up investment in local vaccine production as Ghana seeks to strengthen its capacity to supply the African market, Chief Executive Officer of the National Vaccine Institute (NVI), Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, has said.
He said Ghana and other West African countries were not well positioned to benefit from the continent’s growing vaccine procurement market, partly because so few manufacturers operate in the sub-region.
Speaking at a regional meeting on the African Pooled Procurement Mechanism for West Africa in Accra on Tuesday, November 10, Dr Sodzi-Tettey said the engagement was intended to help African countries prepare for future pandemics by strengthening vaccine manufacturing and procurement systems.
Dr Sodzi-Tettey said only 19 of the 108 manufacturers registered under the African Pooled Procurement Mechanism were from West Africa, representing about 17 per cent.
He said Ghana accounted for just three of the registered manufacturers, representing about three per cent.
“Of these 108, only three manufacturers are from Ghana, which is about 3%, which means that Ghana and West Africa are not strategically positioned to leverage the African market,” he said.
He said the figures highlighted the need to strengthen local manufacturing capacity to enable Ghanaian and West African companies to compete for opportunities under the continental procurement arrangement.
Dr Sodzi-Tettey described the engagement as the first regional meeting of the African Pooled Procurement Mechanism to be held outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
He said the two-day meeting would provide participants with practical information on how the mechanism operates, how countries can access it and how demand for vaccines and other medical commodities is determined.
“We hope that over the next two days, we are going to practically demonstrate what the mechanism is, the operational model, how we can access it, how we can understand the demand, what commodities are going to be procured, and most importantly, how our companies in Ghana and West Africa can leverage this platform and access the continental market,” he said.
The meeting is expected to help local manufacturers understand procurement requirements and identify opportunities to supply vaccines and other medical products across Africa.
The African Pooled Procurement Mechanism is designed to aggregate demand from African countries to improve access to medical products and strengthen the continent’s collective purchasing capacity.
Ghana has been pursuing efforts to develop local vaccine manufacturing capabilities, with the National Vaccine Institute playing a role in coordinating the country’s vaccine development and production agenda.
The regional meeting forms part of broader efforts to strengthen Africa’s preparedness for future public health emergencies and reduce reliance on vaccine supplies from outside the continent.