PRESIDENT AKUFO-ADDO COMMISSIONS NATIONAL VACCINE INSTITUTE

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has commissioned the new ultra-modern office complex for the National Vaccine Institute at Cantonments, Accra, and charged the institute to maintain the facility.

The National Vaccine Institute, is thus, expected to operationalize government’s vision of securing the much-needed vaccines through domestic vaccine development and manufacturing in the short, medium and long-term phases.

In a statement delivered during the commissioning ceremony on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, President Akufo-Addo highlighted his government’s determination to ensure that Ghana is never again a victim or a pawn of the international vaccine order.

He went on to explain that vaccine nationalism played out by the developed world during the COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call for Ghana to take its destiny into its own hands.

In response to this challenge, President Akufo-Addo set up the Vaccine Manufacturing Committee in February 2021, which has now been transformed into the National Vaccine Institute by Act of Parliament. The Institute has been given $25 million to coordinate and facilitate the capacity of domestic pharmaceutical companies to fill, finish, and package mRNA COVID-19, malaria, and tuberculosis vaccines.

The Institute’s governing board has also been inaugurated, with Dr. Anarfi Asamoa-Baah as Chairman, and other members including Prof. William Ampofo, Dr. Baffuor Awuah, Mustapha Tawiah Kumah, Dr. Daniel Gyingiri Achel, Ms. Frederica Sala Illiasu, Dr. Delese Darko, Prof. Alex Dodoo, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Kofi Nsiah-Poku, Prof. Kofi Opoku Nti, Prof. Gordon A. Awandare, and Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson.