President visits Tobinco, Ernest Chemists
President John Dramani Mahama has promised increased government support to pharmaceutical manufacturing companies to enable them to compete strongly on the market.
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Already, the government, through the Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF), has advanced substantial financial support to pharmaceutical companies.
But the President pledged to scale up the assistance.
He said this when he visited two EDAIF-supported pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in Tema yesterday to acquaint himself with their operations.
They are Tobinco Pharmaceuticals and Ernest Chemists.
The visit was in furtherance of his vision of transforming the country into a manufacturing economy.
Promoting made-in-Ghana goods
In his State of the Nation Address early this year, the President stated that the government would support manufacturing industries to boost production as part of the efforts to promote made-in-Ghana goods.
Through EDAIF, a number of pharmaceutical, poultry and other companies have been receiving support.
Some of the pharmaceutical companies that have received support are Tobinco (operating under Entrance Industries), $6 million; Dannex, $3 million, and Ernest Chemists, $10 million.
Over the years, Ghanaian pharmaceutical companies have had to compete with the big players in India and Europe on the local market and expectations are that the government’s financial support will enable them to improve their delivery and live up to the challenge.
President Mahama said the government would invest heavily in ventures in which the country had competitive advantage.
He mentioned some of them as poultry and pharmaceuticals, adding that money put into those areas would yield fruitful results.
He said wherever he went, he would seek funding for companies operating in those areas of national development.
He said the nation must reduce the huge amounts spent on the importation of products which could be produced in the country, saying that was the surest way to rebuild the economy.
The President commended the two companies for their tremendous contributions to economic development.
Amo Tobin
Welcoming the President to Tobinco, the Managing Director, Mr Samuel Amo Tobin, said he was appreciative of the support the government had advanced to the company and promised that it would live up to expectation.
He said the company had the vision to become the largest pharmaceutical establishment in West Africa in the forseeable future.