Vice President Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia has revealed that the pandemic has presented the country with an opportunity to build on existing policy framework to encourage the expansion of domestic industries and reduce imports.
He noted that strives by government to build a self-reliant economy, the country’s digitization drive and sectors of the economy are ripe for investment.
“In a sense, Covid, in some paradoxical way, has jump-started our ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ mission. “It has allowed us to be more self-reliant and we have now, by way of policy, through this whole experience said government procurement should be very much directed, when possible to the local industries. We’re seeing a good response and that is going to drive our policy going forward.”
During an interview with Oxford Business Group’s global research and advisory company’s Regional Editor for Africa, Souhir Mzali, , he addressed some other salient issues of interests, citing the production of PPEs which had been allocated to local textile industries, has produced a “fantastic” response.
Dr. Bawumia maintained that there has been an impressive progress in Ghana’s digitalization efforts which came in handy when the coronavirus first hit.
This, he noted, enabled the application of advanced public health solutions that included the use of drones, while also providing citizens with access to key government services online and allowing many of them to work from home.
“Digital solutions have been extremely helpful in tracing, in testing, in delivery of samples for testing and in communications. The whole process reinforced our commitment to the digitization process.”
Highlighting the various prospects within the country, Dr. Bawumia trumpeted on the vast opportunities apt for investments in areas of agriculture– an area likely to be of particular interest, given the current focus on food security – to industry, financial services and digital services.
“We also believe that Ghana should leverage its position as the headquarters of the African Continental Free Trade Area to become a regional hub.
“We’re building an economy that is going to leverage all these investments to become a hub for many services.”
Covid-19 accelerates Ghana’s e-health revolution
Earlier this year, Oxford Business Group’s outlook revealed that as the fight against the virus continues, a number of domestic and Pan-African health care start-ups have built on recent innovations to help tackle new challenges posed by Covid-19.
In the pharmaceutical retail space, Ghanaian start-up mPharma, which last year acquired Kenya’s second-largest pharmaceutical chain, Haltons, has been using technology to address inefficiencies in supply chains, with the aim of lowering drug prices.
As Covid-19 began to cause global disruptions in drug supply chains, subsequently threatening the supply of important medicine in Ghana, in mid-March mPharma launched a price control programme called ‘Mutti Keep My Price’.
The initiative allows patients in need of chronic disease medication to continue paying the same price for their prescriptions for up to six months, regardless of market prices.
In 2016 the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service, in conjunction with the Swiss Novartis Foundation, began setting up a series of tele-consultation centres as part of its e-health strategy.
Since then, other private players have entered the space.
