Bawumia proposes reforms to make Ghana West Africa’s leading pharmaceutical manufacturing hub

New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has called for increased domestic pharmaceutical production and reforms to position Ghana as West Africa’s leading medicine manufacturing hub.

The former Vice President made the proposal during a meeting with the leadership of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH) at the PSG House in Accra on Thursday, October 22, as part of his ongoing stakeholder consultations.

Discussions focused on expanding local medicine production, improving regulatory efficiency, addressing challenges facing pharmacists and strengthening public-private partnerships to support the growth of the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr Bawumia said the engagement provided an opportunity to hear directly from current and former leaders of the society on policy interventions needed to expand the sector and improve healthcare delivery.

He expressed appreciation to the society’s leadership for their contributions and stressed the importance of building a resilient domestic pharmaceutical industry.

He said strengthening local production could help create jobs while improving Ghana’s health security.

The proposed reforms form part of a broader discussion about how Ghana can expand its pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, improve the business environment for local producers and strengthen access to medicines.

However, details of specific policy measures, implementation timelines and targets for increasing domestic production were not provided in the information released on the meeting.