President John Dramani Mahama has called on financiers, regulators and industrial leaders across Africa to take bold and coordinated action to accelerate the continent’s journey towards health self-sufficiency and reduce its dependence on imported medicines and vaccines.
Addressing a high-level gathering at the Alamein Africa Forum in Egypt on Saturday, the President urged stakeholders to view healthcare not as a charitable undertaking or a routine budget expense but as a strategic economic sector capable of generating significant returns and driving sustainable development.
Speaking in the coastal city of El Alamein, Mr Mahama challenged participants to confront the barriers that continue to hamper local pharmaceutical manufacturing and healthcare investment across the continent.
Directing a series of pointed questions to industry leaders following his keynote address, the President called on financiers to identify the de-risking instruments and blended finance models needed to support long-term investment in African pharmaceutical manufacturing.
He also asked regulators how quickly the African Medicines Agency (AMA) could be fully operationalised to ensure that a single drug approval would grant access to all 54 African Union member states. Industrialists, he said, must identify the partnerships required to move African pharmaceutical production beyond packaging and assembly to the local synthesis of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs).
Mr Mahama’s remarks come amid growing concerns over Africa’s reliance on imported medical products. He noted that the continent currently imports more than 70 per cent of its pharmaceuticals and approximately 99 per cent of its vaccines, resulting in significant foreign exchange losses each year.
The President further warned that declining international aid could worsen existing vulnerabilities, citing projections from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicating that traditional donor health assistance to Africa could fall by between 29 and 46 per cent compared with 2024 levels.
Rather than viewing the reduction in aid as a setback, Mr Mahama described it as an opportunity to attract greater private investment into the health sector.
He referenced findings from the Copenhagen Consensus showing that every dollar invested in basic maternal and newborn healthcare generates an estimated 87 dollars in economic and social returns. He also pointed to research from the Lancet Commission which found that reductions in mortality contributed nearly a quarter of income growth in developing countries during the early 2000s.
As part of efforts to address regulatory fragmentation and improve market access, the President announced the introduction of Health Investment and National Gateway Enabler (HINGE), a digital platform being developed jointly by the African Medicines Agency, Institut Pasteur and AfroChampions.
According to him, the platform is expected to streamline regulation, clinical validation and commercialisation processes across borders, making it easier for health innovations and pharmaceutical products to reach multiple African markets.
Mr Mahama also disclosed that the Accra Reset Presidential Council, which he chairs, is deploying specialised task forces and a Reform Interlock Observatory to monitor capital flows and eliminate non-tariff barriers that hinder regional value chains.
Highlighting successful examples from elsewhere on the continent, the President cited Egypt’s dramatic reduction in Hepatitis C prevalence from 10 per cent to below 0.5 per cent through local pharmaceutical production, technology transfer and support for domestic manufacturers.
He further praised Nigeria’s African Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE) in Abuja, describing it as a model for reducing the billions of dollars lost annually through outbound medical tourism.
Calling for a new approach to healthcare investment, Mr Mahama urged African governments and private sector leaders to treat healthcare as a productive economic asset rather than a recurring cost.
“Let us stop treating health as a line-item expense,” he told delegates, stressing that stronger health systems are essential to economic growth, industrialisation and long-term continental development.