President Mahama introduces health task force to realign Ghana’s budget with health priorities
President John Dramani Mahama has announced two new national initiatives aimed at helping to strengthenGhana’s health financing.
He made the announcement on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, during the Africa Health Sovereignty Summit in Accra.
The initiatives are the Presidential High-Level Task Force on Global Health Governance and the Sustain Initiative, which stands for Scaling Up Sovereign Transitions and Institutional Networks.
President Mahama said the task force would serve as a platform to engage both global and continental partners to reshape health governance systems.
He said the goal was to respond to today’s realities rather than rely on outdated structures.
The Sustain Initiative, he explained, would align national budgets with health priorities and help mobilise domestic, diaspora, and philanthropic funding into health systems. It will also support cross-border learning and improve accountability.
“The world has changed, but global health governance has not kept pace,” Mr Mahama said. “We are called to redesign a system that has for too long ignored Africa’s voice, needs, and innovations.”
He cited global challenges such as pandemics, conflict, climate shocks, and economic instability as signs of a system under strain. According to him, these pressures demand a new approach that supports resilience, fairness, and human dignity.
Mr Mahama referenced a sharp drop in global development assistance in 2023, which he said had immediate effects across Africa.
He noted that in many countries, including Ghana, funding cuts disrupted maternal health services, delayed vaccines, and left hospitals with drug shortages.
“In Ghana, our community-based health delivery system, known as the CHPS Compound Programme, nearly collapsed after donor withdrawals,” he said.
He said the government had since taken steps to protect the health sector by unlocking more domestic resources. “We have uncapped our National Health Insurance Scheme financing, opening up an additional GH¢3.5 billion for broader coverage,” he stated.
Mr Mahama also disclosed that Ghana would introduce a new primary healthcare programme in the coming months, with technical support from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He said the WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had committed to sending a team to support the design process.
He further announced plans to deploy community health volunteers to promote preventive care and wellness services.
Sharing a local example, Mr Mahama said a young mother in Dodowa had survived childbirth complications because the local CHPS facility was digitally linked to a regional hospital. “This is not a future vision. It is already happening. This is health sovereignty in action,” he said.
He argued that governments must treat health spending as an investment, not a cost. “Health is wealth. We must change the thinking that health weakens economies,” he said.
He also called for stronger support for platforms such as PanaBIOS for health verification, Propa for supply chain monitoring, and BioNTech’s vaccine development efforts.
Speaking on the Accra Declaration for Health Sovereignty, which was under discussion at the summit, Mr Mahama described it as more than a policy paper. “It is a moral call to action. It is a strategic milestone for Africa,” he said.
He ended his remarks by urging African governments to take control of their health systems.
“Let Africa rise and take responsibility. Health is not a luxury. It is our freedom, our dignity, and our most valuable public good.”
