Africa imports 70-80% of its medicines

Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank, has revealed that Africa imports between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of its medicines.
Africa suffers an annual loss of $2.6 trillion due to reduced productivity resulting from health issues.
The COVID-19 pandemic caught Africa unprepared, unprotected and left at the bottom of the ladder when it came to the distribution of vaccines.

Adesina shared this information as he received the prestigious Awolowo Prize for Leadership in Lagos. The award ceremony also featured Adesina delivering the annual lecture for the Awolowo Foundation on 'Making a New Nigeria: Welfarist Policies and People-Centred Development.'

Adesina also recounted how the COVID-19 pandemic caught Africa unprepared, unprotected and left at the bottom of the ladder when it came to the distribution of vaccines.

Talking about the economic impact, Adesina noted that Africa suffers an annual loss of $2.6 trillion due to reduced productivity resulting from health issues.

What Akinmumi said:

“Africa loses today, $2.6tn in lack of productivity, due to sicknesses and diseases.”

He outlined several initiatives introduced by the Bank Group to address Africa's health challenges.

These initiatives include a $10 billion facility to assist countries in managing the pandemic, a $3 billion program aimed at revitalizing Africa's pharmaceutical industries, and the recent establishment of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation to support access to proprietary technologies from global pharmaceutical companies.

Calling on Nigeria to secure the health of all its population, Adesina said, “Nigeria needs health care for all,” said Adesina, “Smart governments provide universal basic health coverage for their citizens.”

According to him, this will require ensuring that no citizen travels more than a few kilometres to find a healthcare centre.

"The widespread use of mobile health centres, e-health facilities, the digitalization of health systems, especially in all primary health care centres, health insurance policies for all, including innovative micro-health insurance pay-as-you-go systems, will capture the bulk of the population that is in the informal sector,” he said.