Ghana is being phased out of the Gavi vaccine support programme and is expected to procure its own vaccines by 2030, President John Dramani Mahama has said.

Speaking at the Ghana Medical Association’s Annual National Conference at Miotso, near Prampram in the Greater Accra Region, the President said the country was already buying a substantial share of its own supplies.

“We are currently procuring approximately 50 per cent of our vaccines, but I can assure you that we will be ready by 2030,” he told the gathering.

The conference was held on the theme “The No Bed Syndrome: Reimagining a Befitting Emergency Response System for Ghana.”

Mahama said the 2026 Budget provides support for vaccines, essential commodities and priority health programmes.

“We will continue to strengthen domestic financing for immunisation, HIV and AIDS care, tuberculosis and malaria services, as well as disease surveillance and laboratory capacity,” he said.

He thanked the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, Gavi, the Global Fund and other health partners for what he described as their continued cooperation in sustaining these services.

On prevention, the President said action was also needed on conditions that harm health, and credited the association’s work on antimicrobial resistance and the health effects of environmental pollution, including illegal mining and lead exposure, with helping to inform that action.

He said the Government would continue to draw on the association’s evidence and professional advice.

Primary healthcare, oral health and mental health would also receive attention as part of wider efforts to improve prevention and early care, he said. The Government, he added, was looking at providing mobile clinics equipped with dental facilities.

“We will deploy dentists to move from community to community to provide dental services and attend to the oral health needs of the people,” Mahama said.

He announced that the Government was procuring 100 new ambulances to restock the fleet of the National Ambulance Service.

The service, he said, had informed the Government that 100 broken-down ambulances could be restored if the necessary spare parts were bought.

“We will therefore purchase 100 new ambulances and procure the parts required to bring another 100 ambulances back into service.”

The President also said the Government would soon undertake a feasibility study of the sewage systems of all major government health facilities, with a view to repairing them and preventing the discharge of medical effluents into drains and water bodies.