By: Celestine Avi and Seth Eyiah
President John Dramani Mahama has said the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) provides a major opportunity to build a large, integrated market for pharmaceutical manufacturing and health products across the continent.
According to President Mahama, the AfCFTA means pharmaceutical manufacturers can move beyond individual national markets and produce for a unified African market of about 1.4 billion consumers.
Delivering a keynote address at the 8th African Union Mid-Year Coordination Summit in El Alamein, Egypt, President Mahama said the scale of the continental market could help attract investment, expand local manufacturing and strengthen Africa’s pharmaceutical value chains.
“Under the African Continental Free Trade Area, an African manufacturing plant does not serve a single country of 10 or 30 million people. It serves a single unified market of 1.4 billion consumers,” he said.
He cited the African CDC’s first pooled tender for maternal and child health products as an example of how coordinated demand can strengthen the continent’s pharmaceutical market.
President Mahama said the initiative, which aggregated demand across borders, achieved price reductions of more than 30% while African manufacturers secured 50% of the product lines.
He said coordinated demand can provide greater certainty for manufacturers and investors, helping to create sustainable markets for locally produced medicines and other essential health products.
President Mahama therefore called on bankers, institutional investors and industrial leaders to recognise African pharmaceuticals as a growing investment sector with the potential to contribute to the continent’s economic transformation.
He said leveraging the AfCFTA to develop regional pharmaceutical value chains would also help Africa retain foreign exchange, reduce dependence on imports and strengthen its capacity to respond to future health emergencies.
The President stressed that deeper regional integration, coordinated demand and investment in local manufacturing are critical to advancing Africa’s health security and achieving greater health sovereignty.
