President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has hinted that his outfit is set to establish a National Vaccine Institute as a strategy for domestic vaccine production.
According to the president, vaccine nationalism played out blatantly by the rich and powerful countries hence, the need to be self-sufficient in the production of domestic vaccines in the fight against pandemics in the country.
The president, making this revelation in the State of the Nation Address in Parliament on the 30th March 2022 indicated that the bill will soon be laid before parliament for consideration and approval.
“Mr Speaker, the Presidential Vaccine Manufacturing Committee, which I set up to respond to this obvious deficiency, has put in place a comprehensive strategy for domestic vaccine production, and the establishment of a National Vaccine Institute to implement the strategy, which will enable us to begin the first phase of commercial production in January 2024. A Bill will shortly be brought to you, in this House, for your support and approval for the establishment of the National Vaccine Institute,” he stated.
Agenda 111
President Akufo Addo also intimated that Agenda 111 borne out of the necessity to address the Covid 19 pandemic and improve the health sector in Ghana though delayed, will be completed before he exits office.
He attributed the delay to problems in identifying suitable sites for the project adding that “it is evident that the initial schedule we gave for the completion of the Agenda 111 was overly ambitious.”
“I am able to say that a great deal of the preparatory work has now been completed, and work has started at eighty-seven (87) of the one hundred and eleven (111) sites. I have been assured that preliminary work on the remaining twenty-four (24) sites is ongoing,” he noted.
Accordingly, he said the government has every intention of seeing this project through to a successful end.
The Agenda 111 project comprises standard 100-bed district hospitals for one hundred and one (101) districts without hospitals, with accommodation for doctors and nurses; six (6) new regional hospitals for each of the six (6) new regions; the rehabilitation of the Effia-Nkwanta Hospital in the Western Region; one (1) new regional hospital for the Western Region; and three (3) psychiatric hospitals for each of the three (3) zones of the country – North, Middle, and Coastal.
It will also provide jobs for some thirty-three thousand, nine hundred (33,900) construction workers, and, about thirty-four thousand, three hundred (34,300) jobs for health workers when completed.
Read also: Full Speech of Akufo Addo’s State of the Nation Address 2022
Source: Eric Sekyi/ATLFMNEWS
