Ghana News
Vaccine Institute Boss Sodzi-Tettey Reveals How Mahama Turned $50M Into a Global Health Sovereignty Movement
National Vaccine Institute CEO shares insider account of President’s health legacy one year into his tenure
ACCRA – One year into working for President John Dramani Mahama, the CEO of Ghana’s National Vaccine Institute (NVI) has revealed how the President transformed a $50 million seed investment into what he calls a “global health sovereignty movement.”
Dr. Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, writing in a personal reflection, said Mahama has caught the attention of the global health community by backing rhetorical commitments with concrete local actions.
“A day after articulating his bold vision on Africa’s health sovereignty in Accra, he backed his words with deeds when he allocated $50 million in additional seed funding to the National Vaccine Institute,” Sodzi-Tettey wrote.
From Rhetoric to Action
The NVI boss detailed how Mahama’s far-reaching policies are resetting the narrative on local resource mobilization – even as Ghana undergoes a stringent International Monetary Fund program.
He highlighted the President’s decision to uncap the National Health Insurance Fund, which freed an additional $320 million in 2025, with similar inflows expected in 2026 and beyond.
“President Mahama’s visionary leadership has enabled the health sector to pursue end-to-end health coverage in its quest to achieve universal health coverage,” Sodzi-Tettey quoted NHIA CEO Dr. Victor Bampoe as saying.
A Movement Gone Viral
Sodzi-Tettey said Mahama’s Accra Reset Agenda has “gone viral” among global health leaders, offering a steady path to achieving Africa’s health sovereignty at a time when the United States has withdrawn from global health organizations and USAID funding has collapsed.
“Mahama stepped into it. Forcefully. Elegantly. Inspiringly,” he wrote.
The NVI boss described the President as “an authentic champion for global initiatives,” noting that GAVI CEO Dr. Sonia Nishtar and Bill Gates personally reached out to Mahama to headline a $9 billion fundraising replenishment in Brussels – despite Mahama holding no formal global health titles.
Operational Efficiency
Beyond policy, Sodzi-Tettey praised Mahama’s management style, revealing that no meeting he has attended with the President has ever lasted more than 30 minutes, with clear decisions and follow-up actions typically completed within 24 hours.
“My meetings with the President are by far my favorite. They are short, to the point and always impactful,” he said. “If the health sector seizes the moment, this grand opportunity that the President has offered us, we stand the chance of being the most articulate definition of the Mahama legacy tenure.”
Read Dr Sodzi-Tettey’s full opinion article below:
One Year of Working for President John Dramani Mahama
The issues that confronted us were serious enough to warrant presidential attention. We had our story all lined up. Or so we thought. Calmly, the President listened to us. In three minutes, we were done. He then asked us a simple question. Did we already anticipate and deploy a public service process? We had not. Indeed, if we had, the solution to our problem could have been more seamless. The President’s question betrayed our poor planning. I felt embarrassed.
However, in typical Mahama fashion, Mr. President warmly glided through the glitch, soothing the moment with smiles, and proffering a solution to a challenge that might otherwise not have needed his intervention. Actions promptly followed within 24 hours! President John Dramani Mahama’s long experience as a politician, deep understanding of public sector processes, his sharp wit and uncommon grasp of issues, make him a ‘tough’ customer to deal with.
Overall, it has been a great year; a baptism of fire of sorts in public sector rigmarole, lots of support from family, colleagues, comrades, and not least, the Honorable Health Minister, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh. A truly great honor done me by Mr. President to serve in an impactful role. What reflections and experiences rise to the top, especially as it relates directly to President Mahama?
- The President’s Accra Reset Agenda Has Gone Viral!
The President has caught the attention and fired the imagination of the global health community. With the withdrawal of the United States from global health organizations, the collapse of USAID and its associated development funding, Africa was in dire need of a new kind of leadership. Mahama stepped into it. Forcefully. Elegantly. Inspiringly. His Accra Reset Agenda has elucidated a steady path to achieving Africa’s Health Sovereignty. For obvious reasons, health has now become the rallying cry for greater local financial ownership, stronger equal partnerships focused on national priorities, and a reset of the global health governance architecture.
- President Mahama Backs Global Health Rhetoric with Concrete Local Actions: On 5th August, 2025, Mahama articulated his bold vision on Africa’s health sovereignty in Accra. A day later, he backed his words with deeds when he allocated $50M in additional seed funding to the National Vaccine Institute (NVI). The President tasked NVI to advance local vaccine manufacturing, boost compliance with international regulatory standards, and build research and biomanufacturing skills.
John Mahama’s bold promise to uncap Ghana’s National Health Insurance Fund, which he honored soon after he assumed the Presidency, freed an additional USD 320 million in 2025, with similar or higher inflows expected in 2026 and beyond. Even as Ghana undergoes a stringent International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, President Mahama’s far reaching policies are resetting the narrative on local resource mobilization.
To quote Dr. Victor Bampoe, CEO of the NHIA, “President Mahama’s visionary leadership has enabled the health sector to pursue end-to-end health coverage in its quest to achieve universal health coverage (UHC). With a decisive pivot to address the epidemiological transition (which now makes NCDs account for 42% of mortality among Ghanaians), healthcare provision starts with free primary healthcare, moves to the national health insurance scheme for communicable diseases and then to the Ghana Medical Trust Fund or Mahama Cares, which takes care of people with NCDs like cancer, stroke etc. With the extra funding provided by the uncapping, we have enabled four main outcomes; reduction in financial barriers to care; addressing low awareness of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs); detecting NCDs early; and closing systemic gaps including gaps in equipment and infrastructure.”
This decisive move by President Mahama to create more fiscal space for health has accounted for the rapid payment of $25M in vaccine copayment in 2025, $120M earmarked for the free Primary Healthcare initiative in 2026, including the $46M worth of equipment already purchased to kick off the fPHC programme.
- Mahama’s Office Demonstrates Operational Efficiency: My meetings with the President are by far, my favorite. They are short, to the point and always impactful. I have never attended a meeting with President Mahama that lasted more than 30 minutes. This means that advanced preparation is always key; with key issues crystallized and options for decision making outlined. The ambassador in attendance promptly introduces attendees and agenda, a few thoughtful remarks from selected speakers, and the President caps it off, with clear decisions and the way forward. We take pictures. Post meeting actions are always tackled with prompt efficiency, often with Dr. Callistus Mahama, the President’s Executive Secretary acting within 24 hours of the end of the meeting. No frustrating repeated requests for appointments, non-responsive personal assistants, ill-defined agendas, missing correspondence, and the like! None of that!
- Mahama – An Authentic Champion for Global Initiatives. President Mahama is a communicator at heart, an excellent public speaker. Combined with his impactful reset agenda, the world is increasingly taking note, reaching out to him for leadership. In 2025, GAVI CEO, Dr. Sonia Nishtar reached out to Mahama to support the GAVI replenishment in June 2025 in Brussels to raise $9billion dollars to subsidize global immunization programmes. Why Mahama? Afterall, he was not the AU Chair. Not the ECOWAS Chair. Not on the GAVI Board. In the build up to Brussels, Bill Gates also reached out. And so did the Global Fund. At the fund raiser, the speech by Ghana’s John Mahama became the toast of the community. There he showed an uncanny ability to connect his personal story to the why of the moment, ending with an unforgettable rallying cry for action. It worked! And the decision of GAVI to rope in Mahama proved to be both strategic and wise. Today, President Mahama is the champion for numerous initiatives by the Africa Union including ACHIEVE, Africa’s latest attempt to redefine the vaccine R&D agenda!
- Never Miss the Mahama-moments. This is difficult to fully explain. Typically, it will happen during a situation where the President is required to explain an issue. He would sometimes launch into this detailed almost technical explanation, betraying such a deep grasp of the issues that belies his high-level strategic role as a President. How does he know so much about “galamsey” and the “Blue Economy” anyway?
If the health sector seizes the moment, this grand opportunity that the President has offered us, we stand the chance of being the most articulate definition of the Mahama legacy tenure.
Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey
CEO, National Vaccine Institute
The government has launched a major military-led operation to reclaim the Lafa water retention basin at Mallam, deploying the 48 Engineer Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces in a high-stakes effort to break the cycle of perennial flooding that has devastated communities in Mallam, Weija, Blue Lagoon, Dansoman and surrounding areas for years.
The intervention, which involves breaking up tonnes of compacted solid waste and dredging heavily silted sediment from the basin, comes nearly two months after torrential rains on June 29 triggered catastrophic flooding across the Greater Accra Region.
The exercise is being coordinated by the Post-Flood Mitigation Task Force, led by the Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of Operations, Mr Stan Xoese Dogbe.
“We are dealing with decades of deliberate dumping,” said Ing. Richard Kofi Amekor, Head of Drainage at the Ghana Hydrological Authority. “Solid waste, boulders and laterite have been tipped into this basin for years. The reservoir is so heavily silted that rainwater could not flow into it naturally, causing backflow that swamped Blue Lagoon, the Mallam-Gbawe corridor and parts of Dansoman.”
According to Ing. Amekor, the Lafa stream originates from Mallam-Gbawe Zero and passes through Santa Maria, Atieku, Pallas Town, Alhaji Tabora and McCarthy Hill before draining into the basin and eventually into the sea. But the obstruction of the basin turned the watercourse into a death trap during the June downpour.
The military engineers face an arduous task. Brigadier General Richard Kinney, Commander of the 14 Engineer Brigade, revealed that the waste had been capped with laterite over the years to create land for illegal sale and development, making excavation particularly difficult.
“Our immediate task is to loosen the compacted material before removal. To minimise traffic disruptions, all haulage of excavated debris will be undertaken at night to the designated landfill site at Nsawam,” Brig. Gen. Kinney stated. He added that the entire dredging and evacuation exercise is expected to take several months.
Beyond the dredging, officials are calling for a more permanent solution: the demolition of all illegal structures erected within the water retention area. Ing. Amekor noted that buildings constructed inside the basin have substantially reduced its storage capacity.
“Once the illegal structures are removed, the Hydrological Authority will work with the Weija-Gbawe Municipal Assembly to secure the banks and ensure continuous monitoring,” he said, warning that restoration of the basin will significantly reduce flooding impacts, though it may not eliminate flooding entirely due to the area’s topography and upstream runoff.
Brigadier General Forster Okae-Yeboah, Director General of Joint Operations of the Ghana Armed Forces and Coordinator of the Flood Mitigation Works, confirmed that the Mallam operation is part of a wider, nationwide offensive. Similar dredging works are ongoing at Oyarifa, East Legon and the Kpeshie Lagoon, while work will begin next week around the Kpeshie-Laboma Beach enclave to reopen the channel linking the lagoon to the sea.
“Government has fulfilled its commitment by providing funding and equipment for this exercise, but we appeal to the private sector to support this nationwide initiative,” Brig. Gen. Okae-Yeboah said.
He stressed that military action alone would not solve Ghana’s flooding crisis without sustained public cooperation.
“Residents must stop dumping refuse into the basin and encroachers must vacate immediately. Only by protecting our waterways can we protect lives and property,” he admonished.
Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson is calling for a shift in Ghana’s economic relationship with China, arguing that the country needs investment in factories, technology and local industries rather than a trade structure dominated by the export of raw materials.
Forson made the case as Ghana and China opened the Fifth Session of the Ghana–China Joint Commission on Economic, Trade and Technical Cooperation, where he urged both countries to embrace a new approach centred on value addition, industrial investment, technology transfer and job creation.
While China remains Ghana’s largest trading partner, Forson said the structure of that relationship must evolve to ensure more of the wealth generated from Ghanaian resources remains within the country.
“Ghana’s priority is to process more of what we produce and export more value-added goods, including processed cocoa, to China,” Forson said.
His message amounted to a broader call for investment that helps Ghana build its productive capacity at home.
“We are also seeking investments that build factories, transfer technology, support Ghanaian businesses, train our people and create sustainable jobs,” he added.
A trade relationship marked by imbalance
The call comes as trade between Ghana and China continues to grow. Bilateral trade reached a record $14.1 billion in 2025, representing a 19.3% increase from the previous year.
But the figures also highlight a longstanding imbalance. In 2024, China exported about $9.844 billion worth of goods to Ghana, compared with roughly $1.992 billion in Ghanaian exports to China.
China’s exports have included machinery, electrical equipment, textiles and steel, while Ghana’s exports have largely consisted of commodities such as crude oil, manganese ore and cocoa beans.
Forson’s argument is that Ghana must move further up the value chain — processing its own resources and agricultural products before they leave the country rather than importing higher-value finished goods.
For a country whose economy has long relied heavily on commodity exports, the push for domestic processing could also mean more opportunities for manufacturing and employment.
China opens its market — but can Ghana capitalize?
The renewed focus on industrialisation comes as China expands market access for African exporters. Beginning May 1, 2026, China extended zero-tariff treatment to products from 53 African countries with which it has diplomatic relations, including Ghana.
The policy could create new opportunities for Ghanaian businesses, but expanded access alone may not solve the country’s trade imbalance if Ghana continues to export primarily unprocessed materials.
Forson’s remarks suggest Ghana is seeking to pair greater access to the Chinese market with investments that can strengthen domestic supply chains and help local companies produce more finished goods.
At the continental level, the challenge is similarly pronounced. Trade between China and Africa reached a record $348.05 billion in 2025, but Chinese exports substantially exceeded imports from African countries, leaving the continent with a significant trade deficit.
Ghana seeks investment beyond extraction
Chinese investment is already spread across several sectors of Ghana’s economy, including mining, energy, manufacturing and construction. But as Ghana pursues broader economic transformation, officials are increasingly stressing investments that bring technology, skills and long-term industrial capacity alongside capital.
Chinese Assistant Minister for Commerce Zhang Li acknowledged Ghana’s economic recovery and expressed China’s commitment to deepening cooperation, including through industrialisation and economic transformation.
For Forson, however, the message was clear: Ghana’s future trade strategy cannot simply be about selling more raw materials abroad.
It must also be about building the factories and industries capable of turning Ghanaian resources into higher-value products — and creating sustainable jobs in the process.
Ghana’s major news outlets on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, lead with a mix of high-stakes political drama, government interventions in the mining sector, and pressing economic developments. The headlines are dominated by the escalating legal battle between Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin and GoldBod CEO Sammy Gyamfi over extortion allegations, while President Mahama’s administration moves to rescue the struggling Adamus Resources mine and fends off scrutiny over GoldBod’s financial losses.
1. The Daily Banner
BaWumia Throws Weight Behind Afenyo-Markin
2. Spyder
Cash-Strapped House of Chiefs Grounds Justice
3. The Hawk
Buah Revokes Presidency Rescues Adamus / Paul Afoko Files for NPP Chairmanship
4. Daybreak
Bagbin to Admit Minority’s GoldBod Motion / NLA Staff Suspend Strike
5. The Business Analyst
GoldBod Rejects GH¢1bn Overdraft Allegation
6. The Daily Searchlight
I Believe In Afenyo-Markin! – Bawumia Affirms
7. Business & Financial Times
Mining Chamber Urges Shift from Local Content to Local Capability
8. Daily Post
NDC Formally Notifies Bagbin of James Agalga’s Appointment as Majority Leader
9. The Dispatch
Mahama Intervenes to Save Adamus Mine
10. The Chronicle
I’m Ready to Face OSP – Afenyo-Markin Sues Sammy Gyamfi
11. Daily Guide
Adamus Resources Welcomes Turnaround Plan
12. The Ghanaian Times
Cutting Waste Key to Economic Disaster Looms at Ashaiman
13. Daily Graphic
FDI Inflows Jump to $2.62bn After 2-Year Decline
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