President John Dramani Mahama has issued a strong rallying cry to African leaders, urging member states to build self-reliant healthcare systems and end the continent's long-standing reliance on foreign aid for medical survival.
Delivering the opening address at the African Union Extraordinary Summit on Universal Health Coverage in Accra, President Mahama framed the continent’s healthcare challenges as a modern liberation fight—shifting the battleground from colonial rule to systemic inequality, disease, and fragile medical infrastructure.
“Africa can no longer afford to remain a passive beneficiary of global health systems designed elsewhere,” Mahama declared. “We must become the architects of our own health destiny.”
Reflecting on Ghana’s historical role as a pioneer for African independence, the President noted that African leaders gathered in Accra face another pivotal moment to confront preventable mortality and health inequities across the continent.
He stressed that success must be judged by tangible results on the ground: functional clinics, robust national health budgets, and medicines manufactured on African soil. Pointing to the Accra Reset Initiative, President Mahama outlined how the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) can be leveraged to transform healthcare into an industrial driver, reinforcing the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa.
He highlighted vaccine production hubs in Dakar, Cape Town, Kigali, and the Ghana Vaccine Institute as tangible evidence of progress. On domestic reforms, Mahama cited Ghana’s “Mahama Cares” Medical Trust Fund—designed to tackle chronic diseases and maternal mortality—and backed Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s Mother Africa Call to Action charter.
Closing his address with a reference to Ghana's founding father, Kwame Nkrumah, Mahama urged African governments to finally fulfill the 2001 Abuja Declaration pledge to allocate at least 15% of their national budgets to health.
The two-day summit, chaired by Burundian President and current AU Chairperson Évariste Ndayishimiye, brings together heads of state and delegates to draft a binding declaration aimed at accelerating universal health coverage across the continent.
