Dr. Ebenezer Agyemang (middle) with Dr. Issah Nyamekye (right)
HERBAL MEDICINE professionals in the Ashanti Region have called for the government’s endorsement of herbal medicines approved by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to accelerate health service delivery and job creation.
The practitioners led by Dr. Ebenezer Agyemang, Chief Executive of HEPA Plus Mixture, beseeched President Akufo Addo to prioritise the development and sustenance of herbal medicine in the country, to make it a viable industry contributor towards national development.
The HEPA Plus CEO, who recently bagged a Master’s Degree in Public Health (Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety) from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), said herbal medicine is becoming a key component in healthcare delivery in the country.
Dr. Agyemang said at a news conference in Kumasi that “Ghana is fortunate to have started offering degree programmes in herbal medicine. So we are the pioneers of adding science and evidence-based herbal medicine not only in West Africa but the whole of Africa.”
“So if we just sit down, watch herbal medicine move at a tortoise pace, I think we will not be doing good to ourselves so it is about time the President took advantage of that and make us the hope of Africa as we all see the Black Star as the hope of Africa,” he said.
Currently, there are over 20,000 people practising with more than 5,000 graduates pursuing herbal medicine programmes in the universities.
Dr. Agyemang, who is also the CEO of the Ebenage Herbal Production and Consult, in Kumasi, said the importance of herbal medicine in the health management of Africans cannot be over-emphasised.
He cited HEPA Plus, an herbal medicine carefully manufactured through scientific research to boost immune system, clean liver and promote the general well-being as an example.
The medicine has been endorsed by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), management and health professionals of leading hospitals in the country.
The HEPA Plus CEO said herbal medicines had come a long way, and gradually it was overcoming the perception held by many that they were more of indigenous practice and had little or nothing to do with science.
According to him, the President has the loudest voice and once he supports the use of scientifically-produced herbal medicine, as he promoted the consumption of ‘dawadawa’ and ‘kontomire’ during one of COVID-19 addresses, patronage of the medicine would go up.
This, HEPA Plus CEO said, would have rippling effects on the economy and the general health and well-being of Ghanaians, thereby making them healthy and productive for national development.
Herbal medicine practitioners should also be encouraged to embrace science as far as the practice is concerned, he said, pointing out that HEPA Plus Mixture took not less than five years to develop fully.
Dr. Issah Nyamekye, CEO of Africa Champion Herbal Clinic, said the power of indigenous herbal medicine cannot be underrated.
“Now we have many people from the KNUST who have graduated with their masters’ degree in herbal medicine and are now adding science into making herbal medicine safer and efficient,” he disclosed.
Dr. Nyamekye, who doubles as the Vice President of Universal Plant Medicine and Traditional Healers Association, insisted that herbal medicine remain the best natural way of eradicating ailments.
FROM David Afum, Kumasi