President John Dramani Mahama has announced a new digital platform aimed at reducing regulatory and financial bottlenecks facing health investors and innovators across Africa.
The HINGE health investment platform, formally known as the Health Investment and National Gateway Enabler, is intended to bring regulation, clinical validation and commercialisation into a more coordinated process across African markets.
Mahama unveiled the initiative during his keynote address at the Alamein Africa Forum in Egypt, where he argued that fragmented regulation remains one of the major barriers to building competitive pharmaceutical manufacturing on the continent.
“Today, we present HINGE, the Health Investment and National Gateway Enabler,” he said.
The platform was developed with the African Medicines Agency, Institut Pasteur and AfroChampions.
Push for Faster Continental Drug Approvals
A central concern raised by Mahama was the difficulty pharmaceutical companies face when navigating separate regulatory processes across African countries.
He questioned how quickly the African Medicines Agency could become fully operational so that a single drug approval could help unlock access across all 54 African Union member states.
The President argued that regulatory harmonisation would reduce delays, lower business costs and make pharmaceutical investment more attractive.
That push sits alongside the opportunities presented by the African Continental Free Trade Area, which could allow manufacturers to produce for a much larger integrated market.
Accra Reset to Track Capital and Commitments
Mahama also said the Accra Reset Presidential Council was deploying dedicated task forces and a Reform Interlock Observatory to monitor capital flows, track government commitments and address non tariff barriers affecting regional health value chains.
He challenged financiers to develop de risking and blended finance instruments that could attract long term capital into pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Industrial leaders were also urged to move African production beyond packaging and basic fill and finish operations towards Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient manufacturing.
For Mahama, the goal is not simply to import less. It is to create a health industry capable of producing medicines, jobs and investment returns within Africa. “Governments cannot and should not fund this transition alone,” he said.
READ ALSO: Bawumia Congratulates New NPP Executives, Calls for Unity Ahead of 2028
