Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu
• There’s been a shortage of Coronavirus vaccines on the global market
• As a result, government resorted to the use of middlemen to procure jabs
• The Health Minister has said government will continue to engage middlemen to procure the coronavirus vaccines
Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has noted that government will keep engaging middlemen to procure Coronavirus vaccines for Ghanaians.
He reiterated that attempts to procure the vaccines directly from the Russian government proved futile hence government’s decision to buy from middlemen at $19 per dose.
Addressing a press conference in Accra Wednesday, June 16, 2021, the minister said: “We had to write to the Foreign Minister of Russia, we wrote to the Health Minister of Russia, we wrote to the Trade Minister of Russia, trying to see how best they can facilitate us to do bilateral engagements so we could buy Sputnik from the source.
“All these didn’t yield any responses and no significant results to the extent that we even invited the Deputy Ambassador of Russia for the engagement and he couldn’t facilitate our move. We, therefore had no other option than to try to engage middlemen to see how best we can get the vaccines.”
“Whatever it is, we may have to procure and so far as we are getting bilateral engagements to do, we wouldn’t have options than to continue to engage middlemen to some limited extent,” he stated.
Agyeman-Manu also revealed that government has made part payment for the procurement of Johnson and Johnson’s vaccines.
He stated that the vaccines may be delivered to Ghana by August.
Sputnik V saga: We’ll continue to engage middlemen – Health Minister
• There’s been a shortage of Coronavirus vaccines on the global market
• As a result, government resorted to the use of middlemen to procure jabs
• The Health Minister has said government will continue to engage middlemen to procure the coronavirus vaccines
Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has noted that government will keep engaging middlemen to procure Coronavirus vaccines for Ghanaians.
He reiterated that attempts to procure the vaccines directly from the Russian government proved futile hence government’s decision to buy from middlemen at $19 per dose.
Addressing a press conference in Accra Wednesday, June 16, 2021, the minister said: “We had to write to the Foreign Minister of Russia, we wrote to the Health Minister of Russia, we wrote to the Trade Minister of Russia, trying to see how best they can facilitate us to do bilateral engagements so we could buy Sputnik from the source.
“All these didn’t yield any responses and no significant results to the extent that we even invited the Deputy Ambassador of Russia for the engagement and he couldn’t facilitate our move. We, therefore had no other option than to try to engage middlemen to see how best we can get the vaccines.”
“Whatever it is, we may have to procure and so far as we are getting bilateral engagements to do, we wouldn’t have options than to continue to engage middlemen to some limited extent,” he stated.
Agyeman-Manu also revealed that government has made part payment for the procurement of Johnson and Johnson’s vaccines.
He stated that the vaccines may be delivered to Ghana by August.
Whiles a section of Ghanaians protested the $19 per dose purchase, which is almost double the $10 factory price, the ministry explained that the initial price of the middlemen was $25 but was negotiated downwards to $19.
The ministry noted that several factors including land transportation, shipment, handling and special storage charges among others contributed to the procurement of the vaccines at $19.
Whiles a section of Ghanaians protested the $19 per dose purchase, which is almost double the $10 factory price, the ministry explained that the initial price of the middlemen was $25 but was negotiated downwards to $19.
The ministry noted that several factors including land transportation, shipment, handling and special storage charges among others contributed to the procurement of the vaccines at $19.