
Kamala Harris, US Vice President, arrives in Ghana
The Vice-President of the United States, Kamala Harris, has acknowledged the contribution of Ghana’s drone medical delivery service to the improvement of healthcare in the country.
The initiative, which was championed by Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia has seen an efficient and smart way of delivering emergency medical supplies to even remote areas in the country.
Speaking during a lecture at Black Stars Square on Tuesday, as part of her 3-day visit to Ghana, Kamala Harris enumerated the significant contributions of the service, including the delivery of over nine million vaccines.
“In Ghana, this service has delivered more than nine million vaccines, including those for COVID-19,” she revealed. Currently, Ghana has about six active drone centres and two more set to open, to make the country the largest drone delivery service in the world,” she said.
In Ghana, Zipline Medical Drone Delivery Service, which started in 2017, operates the service targets covering 2,000 health facilities that serve 12 million Ghanaians of a population of just fewer than 30 million from small community clinics and vaccination centers to larger general hospitals.
At the launch of one of the centres in recently, Dr Bawumia, who is passionate about the initiative, said: “There is no reason why we should have people die out of snake bites in one particular district when Upper East is having anti-snake serum and the Upper West, which is just next to Upper East, doesn’t have, and it takes the Minister to come here and Upper East would tell him we have some Anti-snake in the stores”.
In addition to that, he said, “we also believe that there are some of the commodities that you don’t have to even put in the medical stores. We will distribute them at the drone distribution centres”.
Digitisation
Vice-President Kamala Harris further reaffirmed the need for African countries, including Ghana, to invest significantly and reposition their economies through digitisation.
Digitisation, she stressed, is essential for the growth and expansion of 21st century economies as it benefits citizens in various endeavours, including students, farmers and business people.
“One area where we must together make progress is in the digital economy. Whether you’re a student relying on virtual courses, a farmer relying on an app for early warning about extreme weather or a small business owner looking to sell goods online, digital services are essential to 21st century economies,” she said.
She noted that while some African countries are lagging behind in terms of digital services and significant digitisation of their economies, others are leading the charge in digital solutions.
The situation, she indicated, is a compelling reason for the United States to mobilise resources in billions of dollars to Africa to expand and improve access to internet services.
“The partnership between the public and private sector is essential. Partnerships that combine the experience and expertise of the private sector with the rich and capacity only governments can provide. Together we can unleash growth and opportunity what either the public or private sector can achieve on its own. The United States is committed to build these types of partnerships to improve digital inclusion on the continent,” Kamala Harris added.
These latest words of the US Veep add to the loads of commendations on Ghana’s digitisation agenda which has been championed by Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia.
Consistency
Dr Bawumia has consistently stated that the digitisation agenda embarked upon by government is one major path leading to growth and consolidation of the Ghanaian economy.
It will be recalled Dr Bawumia, at a public lecture on the State of the Ghanaian economy, bemoaned the story of successive governments largely focusing their attention on managing crisis relating to the economy, instead of building systems that will strengthen and enhance economic prospects of the country.
Initiatives such as the National Identification Cards, digitisation of passport acquisition, mobile money interoperability, accessing essential services on digital platforms are among the many digital reforms that have significantly repositioned and strengthened the economy.