The Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, has unveiled that the government is putting an extra effort to ensure that no middleman comes in the procurement process of the second batch of coronavirus vaccines. Nsiah-Asare said that the move to avoid middlemen in the procurement process of the second batch of the coronavirus vaccines would be necessary in a bid to ensure that the government cuts down any extra costs that might result in case the middlemen chip in.
“Vaccines from different manufacturers are at different costs. The Ghana government wants to buy directly, as much as possible, from the source, so that we are not going to use a lot of middlemen who will put prices here and there all sorts of things. So, we’ll get the vaccines at the right cost especially using the African medicine supply platform, they know the costs and even trying to beat the cost from the manufacturers down a bit,” the Presidential Advisor on Health stated.
Earlier on, Dr. Nsiah-Asare had indicated that the government would be procuring additional vaccines directly from other manufacturers, in addition to the consignment, it was receiving from India as part of the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) which Ghana, among 92 countries, has signed unto. The Presidential Advisor on Health further revealed that Ghana had already received the first 600,000 doses from COVAX, making it the first African country to do so. According to him, this has been made possible by Ghana’s robust immunization regime, which UNICEF corroborated.
“We are one of the highest outtakes of immunization in the whole world… we are immunization 93% of children. The children in this country are talking about 13 different vaccines and Ghana has decentralized our immunization system and we are actively immunizing people, we have the logistics and we have a robust system in place and this is the reason why, and I heard the UNICEF Chief Executive saying that that is one of the reasons why they chose Ghana to be the first to get the COVAX.” Dr. Nsiah-Asare said.
Dr. Nsiah-Asare revealed the government’s plans to avoid middlemen in the procurement of the second batch of the coronavirus vaccine during a media interview.
The Government is doing whatever it takes to Avoid Middlemen in the Procurement of the Corona Virus Vaccines, Says Dr. Nsiah-Asare
