The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), has made a list of the various investment opportunities in the country’s healthcare industry for foreign investors.
Speaking in a webinar co-organised with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Dubai Investment Industries (DI), Chief Executive Officer of GIPC, Yoofi Grant, noted the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to light the significant deficit in the nation’s health sector despite being one of the most advanced in West Africa.
“Covid made us realize that we had huge deficit in the health care sector and as such needed the involvement of the private sector to address the deficit, particularly in terms of infrastructure [sic],” he stated.
The Ghana Health Service in a 2017 report stated that in 2016 there were 1003 clinics, 404 hospitals, 855 health centres, and 3 psychiatric hospitals with the ratio of doctors per the population in the same year at 1:84813.
Ghana on average spends about 6 percent of its GDP on healthcare infrastructure. This is an improvement on the 3.28 percent of GDP spent on healthcare in 2010.
Though the country has done well in addressing pressing health care issues, there is still work to be done as COVID -19 pandemic has exposed the lapses in the health sector.
Further discussing investment opportunities present in country’s health sector, Mr Grant averred government is faced with limited resources and as such, does not have the much needed capital to undertake massive investments to transform the sector.
According to him, government’s limited resources presents a growing scope for the private sector to participate in for instance, the areas of construction, management, consultancy and financing aspects of the health care sector.
In his presentation during the webinar, Mr Grant listed the following as the various investment opportunities for foreign investors in the health sector:
- Construction of Hospitals and Clinics
- Health infrastructure expansion
- Drugs Procurement and Pharmaceuticals
- Local manufacturing of drugs, medical supplies, and devices
- Hospital Equipment Procurement
- Digital Hospital Equipment Supply
- Provision of M- health services
- Advanced life support and monitoring systems
The webinar co-organised by GIPC and the Dubai Chamber for Commerce and Industry sought to help foreign investors and businesses particularly those from the UAE, to understand the numerous investment, business and partnership opportunities in the healthcare and manufacturing sectors of Ghana as well as the potential synergies that could be developed with companies in Ghana’s health care sector post Covid-19.
