President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has inaugurated a new 13-member governing board for the National Vaccine Institute (NVI) with a charge to work towards developing and manufacturing vaccines locally. The President emphasized the need for Ghana to reduce dependence on unreliable sources by building capacity to produce vaccines domestically. He urged the NVI board to work towards achieving self-sufficiency in vaccine production to meet future national, regional, and continental needs for health security.
The new board, chaired by Dr. Anarfi Asamoah-Baah, Head of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, will facilitate the coordination of all vaccine-related activities in Ghana. Members of the board include representatives from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Food and Drugs Authority, the Ghana Health Service, the Ghana Standards Authority, and other relevant stakeholders.
The President noted that Ghana experienced challenges in securing vaccines on the international market during the COVID-19 pandemic and called for a shift towards producing critical vaccines locally. He expressed the government’s commitment to support the NVI board in fulfilling its mandate and urged the body to engage in stakeholder consultation.
For the most part, the President’s charge to the NVI board aligns with Ghana’s short, medium, and long-term goals for vaccine production. In the short-term, the country aims to fill, finish, and package COVID-19, malaria, and tuberculosis vaccines within two years. In the medium term, Ghana seeks to establish more domestic plants in five years to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) standard. In the long-term, the government aims to produce a candidate vaccine using innovative technology in ten years.
The President commissioned a new ultra-modern office complex for the NVI in Cantonments, Accra, and charged the institute to maintain the facility. The NVI, established by an Act of Parliament, coordinates vaccine research, development, and manufacturing in Ghana.
All in all, Ghana’s commitment to producing vaccines locally is a bold step towards achieving self-sufficiency in vaccine production and reducing dependence on unreliable sources. The NVI board’s mandate to coordinate all vaccine-related activities in the country is critical to realizing this vision. With the government’s support and stakeholder engagement, Ghana can achieve its short, medium, and long-term goals for vaccine production, contributing to the country’s health security and that of the wider region.