APA – Accra (Ghana)
The report that Africa’s quest to produce at least 60 per cent of vaccines needed on the continent by 2040 has received a major boost with the announcement of a US$ 40 million funding by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that Africa’s quest to produce at least 60 per cent of vaccines needed on the continent by 2040 has received a major boost with the announcement of a US$ 40 million funding by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the African Union is pursuing an agenda of vaccine development and distribution across the continent to reverse the over reliance on wealthy countries for vaccine supply and promote health security.
Currently, 99 per cent of vaccines administered on the continent are imported compared with only one per cent produced locally.
Opening this year’s Grand Challenges Global Health meeting here, Co-Chair of the Foundation, Mr Bill Gates said the investment was to scale up messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines on the continent as a major step to ensuring vaccine equity.
“We are supporting the company Quantoom to help it finish developing its breakthrough lowcost mRNA platform and we are supporting Biovac in South Africa and Institut De Pasteur (IPD) here in Senegal to acquire the technology and start making mRNA vaccines.
The newspaper says that the Africa Data Centre (ADC) has signed a $50million partnership with the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to help a hyperscale Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure in Ghana.
The agreement, which is a sequel to the DFC financing commitment of $300million for the digital transformation agenda of the continent, is set to make Ghana a critical hub for safe, secure and trusted Information Communication Technology (ICT) network in West Africa.
As part of the agreement, ADC, a business of Cassava Technologies and a Pan-African technology group, will leverage 15 per cent of the $50million to construct a first-of-its-kind data centre in Ghana.
At a brief signing-in ceremony in Accra on Thursday, the U.S Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Virginia Palmer, said technological advancement and digitalisation had become the lifeblood of innovation and progress, fuelling economic growth as well as driving entrepreneurship.
She said technological advancement and digitalisation were enhancing the world’s collective ability to solving the most pressing global challenges.
“Their transformative power improves access to education, health care, and government services,” she said.
Ms Palmer noted that innovators in Ghana, and across the continent, were embracing technology and using it creatively to generate opportunities and drive development.
According to Mr Gates, the mRNA technology was a promising approach to bridging the vaccine inequity gap and combat various bacterial and viral infections other than COVID-19 on the continent.
He called for stronger regulatory systems “that rigorously protect people’s health” adding that, “as regulators have done with COVID, polio, and early on—HIV, regulators can use their emergency authority to consider the full context when making decisions and part of that should be that saving lives in poor countries is just as urgent as saving lives in rich ones.”
The Graphic reports that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of DFC, Scot Nathan, said the DFC’s work with the ADC through the $300million financing had provided the support to create critical hubs for safe, secure, trusted ICT networks on the continent.
He explained that the data centres could help attract data-driven companies looking for a foothold or to expand their operations in growing African economies.
Akosombo, Kpong dams spillage: 2,000 People displaced in Pru East
More than 2,000 people have been rendered homeless in 15 communities along the Lower Volta Lake Basin in the Pru East District in the Bono East Region.
This follows the spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong dams, which wreaked havoc, as houses and sanitation facilities such as toilets, refuse dumpsites and cemeteries were submerged, threatening the health of the victims.
Additionally, state institutions, particularly schools, have also been submerged, compelling authorities in the area to close down the affected schools.
All commercial activities, mainly fishing and farming, which are the main livelihoods of the people in the area, have also been curtailed.
Large tracts of land, including farms and other livelihoods, have also been flooded.
In a radio interview on Sunyani-based Ark FM’s morning show, monitored by the Daily Graphic last Thursday, the Assembly member for the area, Godwin Awudu, said though the area continued to witness flooding each year, the spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong dams had worsened the situation.
However, he said despite the havoc which threatened lives and property, no casualty had been recorded at the time of filing this report.
Mr Awudu explained that although the affected communities got submerged more than two months before the spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong dams, the spillage of the dams had worsened the situation, as large tracts of farmlands have been flooded and their livelihoods taken away from them.
Mr Awudu said he had made several complaints for more than two months about the situation to the district office of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) for support but he was yet to get a response from them.
He said that since the incident no government officials, including the Bono East Regional Minister, Kwasi Adu-Gyan, and Regional Director of NADMO had visited the area to sympathise with the victims as being done elsewhere.
Mr Awudu said the victims were currently staying with their relatives, while those without relatives were sleeping in open spaces, churches and schools.
He said the Pru East District Assembly and the chiefs in the area had released land for the resettlement of some of the communities such as Fantekrom, Vutideke and Pentecost Nsuoano, because their situation was critical.
However, Mr Awudu said there were no resources for the victims to put up new homes because they had lost all their resources and investments.
He, therefore, appealed to the government and other stakeholders to support the victims with some relief items.
The newspaper says that the Medical and Dental Council (MDC) has called on the government to implement a policy that will help reduce the high cost of medicines in the country.
At the induction of 508 newly qualified doctors in Accra last Saturday, the Chairman of the MDC, Prof. P.K. Nyame, said the cost of medicines had made quality health care a luxury and out of reach for many people, especially the aged and the poor.
He, therefore, urged the government to vigorously support local manufacturers to enable them to produce drugs on a large scale to bring down the cost of medicines.
He also stressed the need for an urgent review of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to cater for more medicines.
“Despite our economic difficulties, there is the need to review the scope of coverage of the National Health Insurance Scheme and other financial aspects of the scheme. “Most importantly, providers should not be placed in a position to withdraw their services, with serious implications for the aged and the poor,” he said.
GIK/APA
Ghana: Press spotlights $40m funding for vaccine production in Africa, others
