Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana
• President Akufo-Addo has said it has been a struggle trying to access vaccines
• This he said has affected the country’s vaccination program
• Ghana is hoping to manufacture vaccines soon
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has admitted that the difficulty in procuring Coronavirus vaccine has negatively impacted the country’s vaccination agenda.
His comment comes in the wake of disagreements over the government’s procurement of Sputnik-V vaccines at a higher cost using intermediaries.
Speaking at an SDG forum at the Jubilee House, President Akufo-Addo explained that the global politics on manufacturing, procurement, and distribution is making the situation even more difficult.
He however added that modalities are been put in place for the production of vaccines in Ghana.
“We have obvious difficulties as far as the vaccination programme is concerned. Unfortunately, we are the victims of this worldwide shortage of vaccines that poor and less advantaged nations are experiencing by not having access to the vaccines.”
“So, that of course is a major challenge for us, the procurement logistics and the issues involved in it.”
A member of Ghana’s COVID-19 response team, Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye has said the government is exploring other feasible options to get vaccines for the country.
“What is happening to Ghana is a global issue. So what we are doing is that this government is engaging directly with other European countries who have stock of AstraZeneca and are not deploying them that much. So we will continue to explore”.
Dr. Okoe-Boye, however, could not give timelines.
According to him, “it will be difficult to speak and state the specific date because, with this Africa platform that we are using and the direct Russia -Government engagement people are talking about, they tell us that it will take six or 12 months before the vaccines will come and remember in a year, a lot can happen.”