President John Dramani Mahama has appealed to health workers across the country to accept postings to underserved communities, describing it as a national call to duty.
Delivering the 2026 State of the Nation Address in Parliament, President Mahama acknowledged improvements in Ghana’s health sector but stressed that more work remains to be done.
“I appeal to our gallant health workers to accept postings to underserved areas. It is a national call to duty, while we work to ensure they have an enabling environment to carry out their responsibilities,” he stated.
The President revealed that Ghana’s health workforce density has increased significantly from 16.6 per 10,000 people in 2025 to nearly 42 per 10,000 currently. He added that public sector health employment has doubled to about 200,000 workers.
“When we assumed office at the beginning of 2025, approximately 103,000 trained health workers were awaiting placement, employment, or enrolment onto the government payroll,” he disclosed.
According to him, over the past year, 13,500 nurses and midwives, along with hundreds of doctors and pharmacists, have been absorbed into the public payroll.
“We have restored and regularized nursing trainee allowances, reduced application fees, and extended the No-Fee Stress initiative to ease access to training. Service conditions are also being implemented to improve morale and retention,” he said.
President Mahama assured Parliament that recruitment will continue.
“Government will expand recruitment and take steps to add more health workers onto the payroll. We will introduce targeted incentives to correct the uneven distribution of health personnel, particularly in underserved areas,” he noted.
On specialist training, he announced plans to scale up advanced nursing and medical training.
“New specialist areas including cardiology, nephrology, endocrinology, and oncology will be introduced, while emergency and critical care nursing will be further strengthened,” he said.
Touching on vaccine production and research, the President stated:
“In line with our national research agenda, we have allocated $50 million in seed funding to the National Vaccine Institute to boost local pharmaceutical and vaccine production. In 2025, a local manufacturer secured market authorization to produce snake venom antiserum in Ghana, and production of the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine is expected to begin this year through a partnership with an Indonesian pharmaceutical firm,” he disclosed.
On immunization financing, he added:
“The 2025 vaccine budget for children and pregnant women was increased by 46 percent to over GH¢171 million, enabling Ghana to fully finance its vaccine needs and reduce the risk of preventable outbreaks. We have also introduced the HPV vaccine to protect young women and girls against cervical cancer,” he said.
President Mahama reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to strengthening the health and education sectors as pillars of national development.
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