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Prof. Ato Duncan Requests Budget Allocation from Gov’t For Traditional Medicine
Chief Executive Officer of COA Research and Manufacturing Limited Company and president of the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association (GHAFTRAM), Professor Samuel Ato Duncan has urged the government to make budget allocations for traditional medicine, to actualise the Green Gold Agenda through research in harnessing the potentials in plant medicine.
Professor Duncan indicates that, through collaborations with various institutions like Centre for Plant Medicine-Mampong, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Cape Coast (UCC), University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) and other notable institutions as well as the traditional medicine industry seeks to raise the standards of traditional medicine to the international level as he believes compliment the efforts of government when financial commitments are made.
Speaking to Chairman General, Kwame Sefa Kayi on Peace FM’s morning show,” Kokrokoo”, Prof. Duncan revealed the many potentials of plant medicine in curing various diseases and its job creation abilities.
“There are a lot of people with diverse herbal medicines in the industry with high efficacy rates in curing various diseases, so if we are able to harness these potentials and draw government’s attention to its numerous abilities in creating jobs and wealth, with resources available, we will be able to develop our plant medicine into what the world will be envious of. This can bring us about 2 million jobs and increase our employment rate by 13 percent while adding about 8.0 percent growth to Ghana’s GDP”. He said.
According to him, “This is not something GHAFTRAM can implement alone without the government’s support”.
He acknowledged governments’ efforts in creating herbal units in some hospitals while calling for such in all hospitals to have access to traditional medicine nationwide.
Again, he called for more inclusion of traditional medicine on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
The Green Gold Agenda launched at the 22nd African Traditional Medicine Day and 25th Traditional Medicine Week seeks to harness the potential of traditional medicine through research and develop it to international standards with expectations of raking in US$ 5 billion annually.
