𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 -𝐕𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭

The Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, has called for a break from aid dependency, urging African countries to treat healthcare as a national security and economic priority driven by domestic investment and strong health workforces.

Addressing participants at the 2026 Annual Health Summit hosted by the Ministry of Health, the Vice President underscored the importance of strengthening Ghana’s health workforce through strategic recruitment, equitable deployment, and improved retention.

She highlighted the need for stronger cross-sector collaboration to create enabling conditions that attract and retain health workers, particularly in underserved communities, while promoting structured labour migration arrangements that safeguard Ghana’s health system.

Minister for Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, outlined measures being implemented to strengthen the health workforce, including the recruitment of additional health professionals, expansion of specialist and post-basic training programmes, and improved deployment to underserved communities.

He noted that government is taking deliberate steps to address workforce gaps, enhance skills development, and ensure a more equitable distribution of health personnel to support quality healthcare delivery nationwide.

The Minister stated that Ghana’s health workforce remains the backbone of the country’s health system and emphasized the need to invest not only in numbers but also in skills, professionalism, motivation, and retention.

“People, not buildings, transform investments into results,” the Minister said, emphasizing that a resilient, motivated, and well-distributed health workforce remains central to achieving Universal Health Coverage and improving health outcomes for all Ghanaians.

This year’s summit is anchored on the theme: “Building a Resilient Health Workforce to Accelerate the Attainment of Universal Health Coverage.”

The summit drew participants from development partners, heads of agencies under the Ministry of Health, the Parliamentary Health Committee, and Health professional regulatory bodies.