APA – Accra (Ghana)
The report that Ghana has become the first country in Africa to manufacture a cholera vaccine, giving the country to boost as the future vaccine manufacturing on the continent is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that Ghana has become the first country in Africa to manufacture a cholera vaccine, giving the country to boost as the future vaccine manufacturing on the continent.
It was produced by DEK Vaccines Limited, a private sector-led consortium of Ghanaian pharmaceutical companies comprising Danadams, Ernest Chemists and Kinapharma.
According to Dr Kofi Nsiah-Poku, Managing Director of DEK Vaccines Limited, the cholera vaccine was one of six other vaccines, including vaccines against Malaria, HPV, Pneumonia and Rotavirus, which would be ready by 2026.
He was speaking to the Ghanaian Times in Accra on Friday on the sidelines of a working visit of the Director General of the International Vaccine Institute, Dr Jerome Kim, to Ghana.
The company, he said, was targeting to produce 600 million doses of the various vaccines annually when the newly installed manufacturing plant operates at its full capacity in about two years.
Dr Nsiah-Poku stated that currently, the company was working on a typhoid vaccine, which included the completion of all necessary tests, and was awaiting the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s certification for production to commence.
He explained that the company’s drive to enhance vaccine manufacturing locally followed a licensing and technology transfer agreement with the IVI, a non-profit international organisation, for the manufacture of the vaccines.
“The agreement is significant for us as it enables drug substance manufacturing capability to be built, that is production of the antigen or raw material needed to manufacture actual vaccines,” he added.
The newspaper says that Ghana will take advantage of next week’s Africa Food Systems Forum in Tanzania to showcase its vast investment opportunities in the agricultural sector, Ghana Country Manager of AGRA, Juliette Lampoh–Agroh, has said.
She said the forum would provide the opportunity for Ghana to take forward the momentum the country was building in its food system transformation efforts.
“We have already developed a food system investment plan and I’m looking forward to investors coming into that programme and making commitments for a sustained investment plan. And I hope that we’ll be able to get a few people coming in to support our agenda to transform Ghana’s food systems,” Madam Lampoh-Agroh said at a media event in Accra.
The annual Africa Food Systems Forum, formerly known as AGRF, is the world’s premier forum on African agriculture and food systems.
This year’s event in Dar es Salaam, which will be chaired by Tanzanian president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, will bring together stakeholders to take practical actions and share lessons that will move African food systems forward.
The 2023 summit, from the 5th to the 8th of September, is anchored around building Africa’s food systems and food sovereignty with the youth and women at the centre.
The summit will call for re-energised commitment and a renewed sense of energy in the food systems’ conversation with a focus on regenerating interest in agriculture as a means of wealth creation for the continent.
It is on the theme; “Recover, Regenerate, Act: Africa’s Solutions to Food Systems Transformation.”
More than 350 speakers will be speaking at the forum and over 3000 people from 70 countries are expected to participate.
Among the several activities to be held at the forum is the Agribusiness Dealroom. It is a matchmaking platform that convenes stakeholders to facilitate partnerships and investments in African agriculture.
The Graphic reports that the Ministry of Finance has launched a $69.7 million Affordable Agricultural Financing for Resilient Rural Development (AAFORD) project in Sunyani to benefit over 540,000 smallholder farmers in six regions.
The beneficiary regions are Bono, Bono East and Ahafo in the middle belt, and the Northern, Savannah and North East regions in the northern belt.
Funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the project is expected to provide direct services to about 75,000 rural households and indirectly to about 465,000 individuals in smallholder households.
The project is specifically designed to provide financing to small-scale and large-scale farmers, farmer-based organisations, as well as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) engaged in agriculture-related businesses.
The goal of the project is to support food security and improve living standards of smallholder farmers, poor and vulnerable women, and youth in the regions.
Launching the AAFORD project, the Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, said the agricultural sector accounted for 54 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He explained that the sector contributed 40 per cent of Ghana’s export earnings, while providing over 90 per cent of the food needs of the country.
The newspaper says that former President John Dramani Mahama has stressed the need for judicial reforms to restore absolute trust and confidence in the country’s justice delivery system.
Mr Mahama noted that the reforms were necessary due to the diminishing public trust in the Judiciary which must be the backbone of democracy and rule of law in the country.
In a virtual address to close the 3rd Lawyers conference organised by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Lawyers Association at Akosombo in the Eastern Region last Saturday, Mr Mahama noted that the reforms must not be imposed by the Executive arm of government but with the collaboration of the Judiciary.
Buttressing his call for the reforms, Mr Mahama said: “All opinion polling and other surveys that have been done showed that the reputation of our Judiciary is at its lowest and we all know what has contributed to this.”
“There have been low level of credibility with the Judiciary.
Our people have always felt that there is monetary influence that influences judgment in both civil and criminal case and you remember the Anas’ exposé that led to the dismissal of some judges,” he said.
Mr Mahama, who is also the 2024 flag bearer of the NDC, observed that the influence of the Judiciary had metamorphosed into partisanship which had manifested in “bizarre” decisions on politically related cases.
“But it has gone beyond monetary inducement.
Now, it is also seen that the Judiciary is partisan and a lot of people feel that justice is not served in many cases and we bear the brunt of that.
You feel that the judiciary is partisan and in many cases some of the decisions are quite bizarre.
“We do believe that there must be some reforms of the Judiciary in order to bolster its reputation and make it an independent institution that not only Ghanaians, but foreign investors and any person who is in the jurisdiction of Ghana can trust.
“So this must be something the Executive cannot impose on the Judiciary but the Judiciary and the Executive working together can work to improve the stature of the judiciary,” he said.
GIK/APA
Ghanaian press spotlights manufacture of first cholera vaccine in Africa in Ghana, others
