Africa’s Bold Plan for Health Independence | A Conversation with Prof. Aliko Ahmed, Africa CDC

What will it take for Africa to become self-reliant in healthcare?
We  spoke with Professor Aliko Ahmed, representing the Africa CDC West African Regional Collaborating Center, live at WHX Lagos 2026.
From coordinating health systems across 15 West African countries to driving initiatives like pooled procurement, this conversation explores how Africa is moving from dependence to self-reliance.
With a bold vision to produce 60% of medicines locally by 2040, this is a story of collaboration, innovation, and progress across the continent.
This is the future of healthcare in Africa and it’s already taking shape.
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hello, healthcare enthusiasts, and welcome to The Cure. We are live at the WHX Lagos Floor with Professor Aliko Ahmed. He is the special representative regional representative of the Director General of the Africa CDC, representing the West African Regional Collaborating Center. Professor Aliko Ahmed, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

So I think when people think about, you know, the CDC and the Africa CDC, people tend to focus on their own individual national body. So Nigerians will think about the NCDC, but your role actually sits higher than that. Your role covers the West African region. So I'd love to hear from you. What does that regional architecture look like from your vantage point?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Well, you explained it already because it's more than just one country. There are 15 countries in West Africa. But by the way, it's Africa CDC. We call it not African CDC. Because Africa CDC means it belongs to Africa, it's for Africa, it's owned by Africa.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

And Africa CDC also is a brainchild of the member states of Africa. So it's their beloved created and mandated by the different countries in Africa, all the 54 of them. So it's a continental premier institution for public health. And we haven't had anything like that before because each country tends to do its own thing. But we know we live in an interconnected world. The world is getting smaller. We have borders that people, particularly ours, that freely move about. So when you take West Africa in particular, there's a lot of sociocultural identity that is similar across that patch. While people speak French and English, the way we live, our cultures are quite intertwined. But coming back to the health system in itself, the idea of Africa CDC is about the coordination. Something better than the individual part. And particularly because we know diseases such as Ebola or M phone, they are cross-border, they don't respect geographical border. So the added value of Africa CDC is to bring that coordination across multiple countries. At the same time, also share good practice because we can all learn from each other. When you have countries like Nigeria with that capacity and population, compared with other small countries like Kevadi, for example, there's a lot you can learn from. So Africa CDC, in essence, is there to complement what each country is doing, share good practice, coordinate, facilitate, convene where necessary. But the ultimate goal is to make sure each of the member countries is strong enough and it's resilient.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

I love that. I love that response. Thank you for painting that picture. And I think one of the most initiatives from the Africa CDC is the African Poll Procurement Mechanism that aims to kind of aggregate demand and poll procurement so that cost savings are passed on to African patients. And I would love to hear from you what does success look like for the APPA? How does that tie? You know, in your your keynotes um presentation today, you talked about the Africa CDC having a goal that by 2040, 60% of the drugs and medicines used in Africa are made in Africa. So I'd love to hear how the pool procurement mechanism will kind of feed that goal as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

I'm glad you've done a lot of your research. Thank you. Because the APPM is really an important mechanism for Africa. That 40%, about 60% of the medical consumable. So whether vaccine, drugs, or healthcare products, we import them. That means we have less than 30, 40% capacity. We don't have our own products, we depend on importing them. So the full procurement mechanism, what that in essence is saying, is two elements. One, we want to promote manufacturing locally in Africa. But manufacturing that means high-quality standards that can be accredited and be seen to be good everywhere in the world. So just because it's Africa doesn't mean we deal with low quality. So there's an element of making sure we have the manufacturing capability of high-quality products. But then on the other side, the demand side to make sure that governments and markets are ready to buy them.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Because there's a risk for investment whereby you can invest into producing things and you don't have a buyer. And you can understand that. So Africa procurement mechanism is intended to balance the two, to shape the market. And the advantage also is we have big countries, small countries in Africa, not all of them can manage to produce anything. So the idea of the APPM is based under the idea of what we call the sovereignty agenda. Yeah. Because Africa wants to move from dependence to self-reliance. Because that's the feature of it. And what that will do mean is countries don't have to each try to manufacture. What we can do is take advantage of where there are strength and asset, then we build that. And other countries can do something. Some may produce the ingredients, some may produce the drugs. But an important element is also realizing that we need to harmonize the quality standard so that drugs produced in Nigeria can be holding South Africa and vice versa. At the moment, we have almost 50-something different regulatory mechanisms, which can be a barrier. Also, when you are procuring drugs, countries don't have the volume to do that alone. But when you take Africa as a whole and bring all the procurement in together, that's a strong block to buy some. So that is one of the essence for that. So as I said, two key elements: making sure the supply side, we are supporting manufacturers to get the right resources and making sure it's of high quality, the regulatory mechanism works. On the other hand, also making sure Africa can buy the drug when it's being produced. And the fact that Africa CDC is doing that is quite helpful. Africa CDC is owned by the African head of state. So that means they can guarantee that when these things have been produced, we can buy them. The ultimate goal, as you quite rightly said, is by 2040 to reverse that trend.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

At least 60% of everything we consume in Africa is produced in Africa. Where Africans buy for Africa and also other members of the world, other countries that will come buy from us. So that's the idea: self-reliance and sovereignty for Africa. That's what we are for.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Amazing. Thank you so much. This has been so insightful. We're going to be following your work very closely. Thank you. And we can't wait to see how you push forward that sovereignty agenda in this West African region. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

But we have to depend on young people like you as well. Because I think the seed has been put in place now. Our African leaders and technical leaders are coming together. And I think it's liberating, it's exciting, it's empowering. We want a legacy whereby we are self reliant. We have partnership with others, but they have to align to the priorities of Africa. Yeah. And that's the objective. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. Thanks. See you in the next episode.