Press focuses on ground breaking ceremony of €5m vaccine manufacturing factory, others

Press focuses on ground breaking ceremony of €5m vaccine manufacturing factory, others
APA – Accra (Ghana)
The ground breaking ceremony performed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday for work to begin on the construction of a vaccine manufacturing factory at Midie, in the Ga West Municipality of the Greater Accra Region is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo performed a ground breaking ceremony yesterday for work to begin on the construction of a vaccine manufacturing factory at Midie, in the Ga West Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.
Known as the DEK Vaccines Limited and supported by the European Investment Bank (EIB), with an amount of the €5million euros, the project is expected to be completed in 2024.
DEK is a private sector led consortium of Ghanaian pharmaceutical companies comprising Danadams, Ernest Chemists and Kinapharma.
The factory will have the capacity to manufacture 600 million doses of various vaccines every year, including vaccines against Malaria, HPV, Pneumonia, Rotavirus and Cholera.
Speaking at the event, President Akufo-Addo said the move formed part of efforts by the government to support local vaccine manufacturing to reduce high dependence on importation.
He stated that the construction of the vaccine manufacturing plant “will help the nation realise the dream of becoming self-sufficient in the production and manufacture of vaccines.”
According to the President, the vision to manufacture vaccines in Ghana begun two years ago, saying “the vaccine nationalism that was played by the developed world with the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, meant that we had to take urgent, critical steps towards making sure that never again would we be victims of international vaccine order. It was imperative that we took our destiny into our hands.”
The newspaper says that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been urged to consider increasing concessional financing to Africa and also relax the eligibility criteria for Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust resources.
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, who made the call during the 2023 Africa Consultative Group Meeting with the Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgievain, Washington DC, U.S.A, last Sunday, said that would ensure timely financing assistance to most vulnerable members.
The meeting was on the theme “Addressing debt challenges and enhancing debt management to improve access to finance in Africa”.
The Governor said the improvement in IMF’s lending framework to enhance the continent’s access to Fund resources to address the fiscal challenges facing the continent would be critical in addressing the current debt challenge facing Africa in general and Ghana in particular.
“It is in this context we welcome the Fund’s decision to temporarily raise the annual and cumulative limits in the General Resources Account (GRA) to 200 per cent and 600 per cent of quota respectively for a period of 12 months,” Dr Addison stated.
He stressed that the IMF should align the PRGT access limits with those of the GRA to enhance Fund support to PRGT-eligible members facing acute debt challenges, while strengthening the fundraising efforts to bolster the PRGT resource envelope.
Dr Addison stressed that the Fund should continue close engagements with other international financial institutions and creditors to strengthen the multilateral framework for dealing with Africa’s debt distress in a timely manner.
“In this context, the G20 Common Framework (CF) should be enhanced to deliver swift, predictable, transparent, and equitable debt resolutions, while permitting debt service suspension during negotiation to offer instantaneous relief to debtors,” the Governor stated.
He said a protracted CF process undermined overall confidence and impacted IMF’s catalytic role, in addition to its negative demonstration effect with new countries that are hesitant to request a CF debt treatment.
“We also underscore the need for the newly created Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable to remain focused on accelerating debt restructuring processes and making the G20 Common framework more efficient,” Dr Addison noted.
The newspaper also reports that Ghana’s Black Starlets secured their third straight victory to win the UEFA U-16 Development Tournament in Serbia after beating Switzerland in their last game.
The win against Switzerland ensured Ghana won the tourney unbeaten.
A brace from Ramsey Asumadu and Bosman Debrah’s strike gave the Starlets a 3-2 win over Switzerland.
Ghana started on an impressive note, beating host nation Serbia 4-0, beat Spain in their second game before yesterday’s 3-2 win over the Swiss.
The Starlets forward Benjamin Tsivanyo won the Golden Boot after bagging five goals in three matches.
The Graphic says that former President, John Dramani Mahama, has said he will establish a Governance Advisory Council as part of his vision to improve political governance, help curb corruption and ensure the respect for human rights in the country.
Addressing National Democratic Congress (NDC) executive members and supporters as part of his campaign to lead the NDC to the 2024 election, Mr Mahama said membership of the proposed Governance Advisory Council will include representatives of civil society organisations, religious leaders, traditional leaders and ordinary Ghanaians.
According to Mr Mahama, who is promising to wage a sustained war against corruption and poor governance when elected in 2024, the functions of the council will include the annual release of a State of Governance in Ghana report.
“Every year, the council will release a report on the state of human rights, corruption and a report on our governance, which will serve as a guide for government to know whether we are on the right track with regards to issues of governance, corruption, human rights, media and other freedoms including torture and crime,” President Mahama said.
The establishment of the Governance Advisory Council as promised by former President Mahama will be yet another significant step in his quest to promote better governance and fight corruption.
A statement signed and issued by the Spokesperson for former President Mahama, said in his first term as President, Mr Mahama introduced a Code of Ethics for Ministers of State and Government Appointees.
The code of ethics reflected his government’s vision to maintain a clean government imbued with systems, clear procedures and guidelines for performance and delivery.
GIK/APA