WHO Names Ghana's FDA As Africa’s Second Best Regulator

Ghana's Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has been rated a World Health Organization (WHO) Level Three listed institution.

The Acting Country Representative for the WHO in Ghana, Dr. Neema Kimambo, congratulated the Government of Ghana for this achievement and challenged the Foods and Drugs Authority to work hard to sustain the gains and to reach the Level 4 stage.

She lauded Ghana for having strengthened its medicines regulatory system to ensure safety, quality and effectiveness of medical products manufactured, imported or distributed within the country.

Dr. Kimambo said this when she handed over the official letter from WHO communicating the achievement of Regulatory Systems Maturity Level 3 by the FDA to the Ministry of Health.

There are four levels of regulatory systems classification starting from Level 1, where only some elements of regulation exist, and up to Level 4 corresponding to the advanced regulatory system. Level 3 indicates that the system is well-functioning and integrates all required elements to guarantee its stable performance.

She indicated that Ghana's achievement reaffirms the collaboration between WHO and governments towards realizing the targets of universal health coverage and sustainable development goals.

“Ghana and Tanzania are the only two of WHO African Region's 47 countries to have attained a Level 3 ranking. Tanzania achieved the classification in November 2018. WHO is working with countries in the region to improve the performance of their national regulatory systems and facilitate comprehensive oversight of medical products.”

Dr. Kimambo said that WHO was proud of Ghana's achievements and will continue to support medicine regulation by developing internationally recognized norms, standards and guidelines, and by providing technical assistance and training to enable countries to implement global guidelines to meet their specific health needs.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Foods and Drugs Authority, Mrs Delese Mimi Darko, said that the benchmarking process has been very stringent and long and further saluted all her staff for their hard work and resilience in ensuring this milestone achievement.

The Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu said that the Government over the year has invested in strengthening regulatory systems in Ghana and is happy that the FDA has given value that transcends the whole of Africa.

“The President and the Government of Ghana is proud of this achievement. Ghanaians must continue to have confidence in the FDA because their only agenda is to keep Ghanaians safe and that would be pursued without fear or favour” he added.

Present at the brief handing over ceremony was Director for Technical Coordination at the Ministry of Health, Dr Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt, Directors of the Ministry of Health, WHO staff, FDA staff and Board of Directors as well as a cross-section of the Media.