The government of Ghana during the peak of the COVID-19 indicated plans of producing locally manufactured vaccines as part of efforts to help reduce the infection rate in the country. President Akufo-Addo, who made this announcement, explained that it was to help the nation have a vaccine which meets international standards to fight the virus locally.local
As part of plans to make this move become a reality, stakeholders in the health sector, spearheaded by the Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr. Nsiah Asare, on Friday, October 1, 2021 began talks regarding the roadmap to the vaccine production in Ghana. The Presidential Committee on Vaccine Development and Manufacturing has outlined plans for beginning the process in the country with help from some partnerships.
In this regard, The Vaultz News interacted with some citizens to share their expectation on the current move by government to get the vaccine locally manufactured.
Speaking with an accountant with PWC, Mr. Edmund Coffie, he asserted that the move by government is a laudable one and hoped for the project to come to fruition as promised by government. He, however, indicated that looking at the progress so far,;he does not anticipate it being done soon due to the various uncompleted projects by government regarding COVID-19.
“There have been a lot of promises especially when it comes to how the nation is dealing with COVID, where we’ve had the President;promise to build hospitals and up till now we are yet to see the light of day of this project. It’s a good project but as it being done on time is something that I don’t think can be done.”
Mr. Coffie
Government to face financial challenges
Mr. Coffie also posited that Ghana,;although is equipped with human resources will face challenges in terms of financing to help this project come alive. Despite the outlined funding and partnerships by government,;he called for more partnership with international bodies in bringing the project to reality.
“We have brilliant doctors and pharmacists who can come together to make sure this project sees the light of day. But we are going to have a bit of a challenge in terms of financial resources even though we have a lot of natural resources.”
Mr. Coffie
Also speaking with the Vaultz News,;Mr. Enoch Mensah, an Investor Relations expert, averred that Ghana does not have the capacity to produce vaccines locally and immediately in that regard. He indicated that the lack of resources will hinder the plans to undertake the project. He added that with government’s vaccination timelines,;the vaccines will not be available immediately to meet the timelines.
“Even the people that have the resources,;I mean the bigger countries in terms of resources and scientific research,;the back ground and technical know-how; even those people in the peak of the COVID were not able to produce the vaccines immediately. It took them some time for them to actually come out with the vaccine. And so that being said, let’s look at the case of Ghana, we are not there yet as a country that can be believed to be an authority in terms of science or technology. It takes millions of dollars to come out with these vaccines. With what is currently happening in Ghana, I don’t even believe that we have that kind of resources to cater for ourselves or to even talk of producing vaccines for the people in the country.” local
Enoch Mensah
Import vaccines and subsidize prices
Mr. Mensah therefore suggested that government should import the vaccines and subsidize the prices so citizens could afford rather than manufacture.
“Since we are not scientifically top notch but we still want to produce vaccines, I feel we should just leave it for the private entities to import the vaccines and sell them. Government can put on some subsidies so the average Ghanaian can afford it.”
Enoch Mensah
Contributing to the conversation, a communicationist with the Margins Group, Miss. Adusei indicated that Ghana does not have enough resources for the production and as such will hinder the project.
“Even if we are to produce, it will require a lot of resources which clearly we do not have. Even if they are supposed to do this, clearly there will have to be foreign investors and lots of money will go into it.”
Miss Adusei
Mr. Joseph Opoku, a fresh graduate topping the conversation noted that government will progress with the production despite the challenges the economy and health sector are facing in fighting COVID-19. He indicated that since government will be partnering with some other foreign institutions to undertake the project, they will provide some required resources to aid the project.
