The Executive Chairman of the Tobinco Group of Companies, Elder Nana Amo Tobbin I, is appealing to the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to select a number of pharmaceutical companies in the country, irrespective of their political affiliations, groom them and support them to meet the needs of the international markets.
He also called on the President to link owners of the local pharmaceutical companies to other African Countries, especially the Presidents of the West African countries in order to do business with them.
Nana Amo Tobbin I, made the call at the Launch of the Entrance Month in Accra on Monday, June 7, 2021.
The Entrance Month, which is usually commemorated in June every year, focuses on the creation of awareness on the quality and affordable products by the Entrance Pharmaceuticals Company and Research Centre.
Speaking at the event, Nana Amo Tobbin I said linking the local companies to multi-national companies will help grow their businesses.
He noted that in most foreign countries, the government adopts some of the companies irrespective of their affiliated parties and support them with money, links and all the resources they need in order to grow their economy.
“Sometimes it is not only the money, it is about the links. It is about linking us to the multi- nationals. If the government connects us, it will help,” he said.
Nana Amo Tobbin I said, “The government should take this upon itself. It should do away with partisanship and pick 5 or 10 companies and support us financially and push us to the West African Countries. We have the potential to win the whole West African Countries so far as Pharmaceutical industry is concerned.”
He stressed that, “If they groom us and link us to Presidents of West African Countries, at the end of his full term, some of them will stand tall. Link us to them and encourage them to buy from us and tell them that when they buy, they should pay, I am sure by the time he will leave, he can be proud of the companies he helped grow.”
Meanwhile, Nana Amo Tobbin I also called on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health to push for imported anti-malaria medicines to be added to list of medicines banned by the FDA as local companies now have the capacity to produce quality anti-malaria drugs.
“We have a lot of local companies manufacturing anti-malaria medicines and if it is added to the list, we can manufacture them here,” he assured.
Ghana| Atinkaonline.com| Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori
Writer’s email: porcia9332gmail.com