Ghana’s President, John Dramani Mahama, has urge African leaders to take healthcare delivery of their citizens into their own hands.
He has urged leaders to proactively invest in healthcare, rather than relying on benevolence from the West to cater for the health of their citizens.
According to Mahama, “this desire to take our health destinies into our hands imposes important responsibilities on us as African leaders.”
Delivering a keynote address at the 79th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland, today, Monday, May 18, 2026, Ghana’s President noted that “we do not come to Geneva to mourn the past. We come to build a future where a country’s health is not a byproduct of charity, but a result of sovereign capability.”
He admonished leaders from the Global South to see health as “an investment rathan just a social obligation.”
President Mahama established a direct correlation between economic progress and a healthy population, demonstrating leadership by touting the policies he has commenced back home in Ghana to set as example.
“A healthy population is indispensable to economic progress. As an advocate for African health sovereignty, I am obliged to demonstrate its practicality at home,” he indicated.
“In Ghana, we have moved beyond rhetoric to implement calculated, aggressive policies that place the citizen at the centre of the clinical encounter. With one of the more successful National Health Insurance Schemes in Africa, Ghana has an insurance coverage estimated at 66% as of the end of 2025,” he added.
He remarked that the Government has introduced a new policy where the deficit are catered for, ensuring that citizens in disadvantaged areas are all covered.
“This leaves about 34% without cover. Besides, the NHIS has been focused principally on curative care, with very little attention to preventive care.To mop up the remaining population not covered by the NHIS, we have recently successfully begun implementing our Free Primary Health Care Programme.
“By removing financial barriers to the most basic and essential services at the rural level, we have ensured that our citizens in the remotest regions of our country also enjoy access to quality health care, on par with their urban counterparts.”
The President further explained the other interventions made in the health sector to ensure Ghana weans itself off donor support in caring for its citizens.
“By removing the cap on the health insurance fund, we immediately freed up an additional GHS 3 billion, equivalent to $300 million, for healthcare investment. We have also streamlined NHIS operations by eliminating bottlenecks, utilising digital tools, including AI, to detect fraudulent claims, and, most importantly, prioritising prompt refunds to service providers.
“A health insurance scheme is only as strong as the trust between the state and the hospitals that provide the care. By ensuring our providers are paid on time, we ensure our citizens are treated with dignity.We have also confronted the rising tide of non-communicable diseases by launching the Ghana Medical Trust Fund, also known as MahamaCares.
“This fund is a lifeline for those suffering from NCDs—cardiovascular conditions, cancers, liver disease and renal failures—that were previously a death sentence for the poor. MahamaCares is ensuring that specialised, high-cost care is not a privilege for just a few, but a right for all.”
Mahama to champion health sovereignty for Global South at 79th World Health Assembly in Geneva
