President General for Centre of Awareness Global Peace Mission and Founder/CEO of COA Research and Manufacturing Limited Company, Professor Samuel Ato Duncan, has bemoaned the lack of support for traditional medicine irrespective of the nation’s huge potentials in resources, including institutions and researchers.

“Ghana, we have all it takes to get what we are talking about. We have research institutions into plant medicine: KNUST, Centre for Plant Medicine Research, UHAS, UCC, and whatnot. And we have experts here in Ghana, and we have the institutions,” he said.

Speaking at the 25th Traditional Medicine Week Celebration of Ghana & Commemoration of the 22nd African Traditional Medicine Day, on the theme “Support the Provision of Quality and Safe Traditional Medicines through Appropriate Regulatory Mechanisms”, Professor Samuel Ato Duncan challenged the status quo of plant medicine in Ghana while calling for stringent policies and collaborations to impact the Ghanaian economy, whilst addressing the health needs of individuals.

He said Ghana makes USD 7.5 million annually from plant medicine compared to:

• China: USD 28.6 billion
• India: USD 13 billion
• United Kingdom: USD 200 million
• Germany: USD 1.3 billion
• Uganda: USD 270 million

Rallying for a collaborative effort with a focused mindset, he entreats local manufacturers to do more than capturing just 7% of the total 30% of local manufacturing in the country.

According to him, Ghana imports about 70% of pharmaceutical products with about USD 7.8 million as export revenue and USD 1 billion pharmaceutical sales in Ghana. He challenged local manufacturers to capture at least 20% of the USD 1 billion to help the nation.

“By 2050, it is estimated that the market for traditional medicine is going to be 4.5 trillion dollars, and Ghana can make close to 250 billion dollars from this particular market using traditional medicine,” he said.

Professor Samuel Ato Duncan, also the president of the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners’ Association (GHAFTRAM), launched the “Green Gold Agenda”—an ambitious initiative that seeks to harness the potentials in plants and traditional medicine through research and modify them into international standards. This initiative is expected to generate about USD 5 billion annually.