Prof. Samuel Ato Duncan
President-General of COA Research and Manufacturing Limited, and President of Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners’ Associations (GHAFTRAM), Prof. Samuel Ato Duncan, has unveiled the Green Gold Agenda which is expected to generate $5 billion annually for the country.
He said the Green Gold Agenda, which is being pushed by executives of GHAFTRAM, is a programme that seeks to harness the potential of traditional medicine through research and develop them to international standards for the global market as another commodity (Green Gold) for Ghana.
“We expect this to generate over $5 billion annually, which is more than that of our proceeds from the cocoa industry,” he stated.
Prof. Ato Duncan made the statement at the commemoration of the 22nd African Traditional Medicine (ATM) Day and 25th Traditional Medicine (TM) Week Celebration held over the weekend, at the Osu Presby Church.
He observed that the herbal medicine industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, due to factors such as consumer preference for natural products, the perception that natural products are effective with minimal to no side effects, rising costs for synthetic pharmaceutical drugs, and budget cuts for modern healthcare.
According to him, the global herbal medicinal products market is expected to be valued at $177.65 billion by 2029.
President-General of COA Research said in Asian countries including China, India, Singapore, and Malaysia, a significant portion of their total economic revenue is generated from the traditional medicine industry.
He said the aforementioned statistics indicate that the majority of people globally uses traditional medicines and, therefore, it needs serious attention.
“That is why WHO developed and launched the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014–2023, which also emphasised the integration of traditional and complementary medicine to promote universal healthcare and to ensure the quality, safety, and efficiency of such medicines,” he stated.
Despite the above statistics, Prof. Duncan was saddened that in Ghana, the traditional medicine industry has received very little attention from successive governments.
The President of GHAFTRAM, therefore, urged the government to consider including approved traditional medicines in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Meanwhile, aside from the Green Gold Agenda, the President of GHAFTRAM who desires to transform the traditional medicine industry into an enviable one, mentioned that GHAFTRAM will establish a very firm administrative structure to run the federation and ensure that every traditional medicine practitioner in Ghana is captured in its database and registered with the federation.
Again, he said, the federation will help traditional medicine practitioners to standardise their medicines and operations as well as establish a research committee made up of representatives from reputable research institutions and regulatory bodies.
In addition to the above, Prof. Duncan said the federation will establish a Traditional Medicine Development and Research Fund to support research and development of traditional medicine in Ghana, as well as look for funds internally and externally to support the industry and expand processing and distribution.
A Daily Guide Report