The 2nd consultative meeting in Kigali brought together representatives from RECs, development partners, DFIs and stakeholders
Africa Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are meeting in Kigali to share best practices on how to implement an African Pooled Procurement Mechanism (APPM) for buying medicines and medical supplies with one voice but also develop local manufacturing in the long run.
Jointly organized by the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat and the University of Rwanda/EAC Regional Centre of Excellence for Vaccines, Immunization, and Health Supply Chain Management (UR/EAC RCE-VIHSCM).
Building on momentum from the inaugural workshop held in Addis Ababa in August 2024, the 2nd consultative workshop that kicked off Wednesday discussed how to use the already pooled $4billion to kick start a process of manufacturing and buying locally to enhance the existing African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) framework.
Access to affordable, high-quality healthcare products remains a significant challenge in Africa, and this is further complicated by fragmented markets, small order sizes and poor demand forecasting.
Dr. Steven Karengera speaking to local media about the workshop expectations
“Pooled procurement offers a solution, boosting collective bargaining power, increasing supply stability and attracting competitive suppliers,” Dr. Steven Karengera, the Director of EAC RCE-VIHSCM, which has played a role in formulation the EAC mechanism and its implementation that was rolled out this week.
Karengera clarified that the APPM is different from the region initiatives as it aims to bring all African countries to work together in bulk procurement but also to agree on instruments to enable the local manufacturing sector which has already taken shape to boost the local industry.
With 1.3 billion people in Africa, Karengera said that the implementation of the APPM will aggregate demand but also allow manufacturers to produce and sell anywhere on the continent without having to go through a rigorous process of seeking permits from each country individually.
“We have to create a loop for manufacturing which currently needs to have active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) which are currently patronised by China and India,” Karengera said revealing that registration alone takes three years to process and one has to pay above $2000 for a permit.
“This is what we are trying to stop working together so that we can really facilitate our industries to manufacture locally. So, you need all of those instruments that enable this and build financing vehicles,” Karengera said.
Dr. Julius Simon Otim
Dr. Julius Simon Otim, a Senior Health Officer at the EAC Medicines Regulatory Harmonization Programme said that the APPM will enable regions to learn from each others’ best practices as many of them have already made significant step in their respective RECs.
“If something is working in one region, we dont need to recreate it. We should simply adapt it,” Otim said revealing that at the East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA) they are developing a new law which will allow anything manufactured in East Africa, to be purchased by all member countries unless there is a genuine reason to buy outside the region.
“We want to make this a law so that it will be a condition for countries, so that before a country take money somewhere else, they must check if the product is not available locally,” Otim said.
Moving Africa’s Trade Agenda:
Speakers at the 2nd consultative meeting
The workshop was aim at aligning the efforts of Africa CDC and RECs and create a holistic coordinated and synergistic approach to the pooled procurement mechanisms with expected outcomes including establishing alignment and synergies between APPM and the RECs pooled procurement initiatives, agreeing on joint actions on advancing the pooled procurement initiatives leveraging on the respective mandates and reach at continental and REC levels and establishing a joint information sharing platform.
Eugenia Ingabire
Eugenia Ingabire, Trade Policy Officer at AfCFTA-Ghana Coordination office said that trade agenda will be boosted but African countries have to focus on made in Africa products which provide jobs for Africans as required of them by the Heads of State who signed the agreement and framework agreement in March 2018 in Kigali.
Afreximbank Director Export Development Division, Ody Akhanoba said that the bank has since June of last year injected $2billion that will enable African countries to rollout, under the APPM, the continent’s pharmaceutical value chain to enable self sufficiency as far as local manufacturing and medical supplies is concerned.
Ody Akhanoba
“So that two billion dollars will be made available to various players within the value chain so manufacturers will benefit from facilities, suppliers will be able to benefit, member states themselves will be able to draw on that two billion dollar facility and use it to procure health and medical supplies through the APPM,” Akhanoba said.
He explained that what has been done is to take a look at the various stakeholders or the various players within the value chain, think through what their financing needs might be with an underlying idea of developing specific fit-for-products for each of the regions, so that everyone in the value chain can can financially benefit and participate.
As the meeting host, Dr. Steven Karengera, the Director of EAC RCE-VIHSCM welcomed delegates to Kigali, Rwanda
Panel discussion on the APPM instruments and shared practices
Participants at the two-day workshop that ends Thursday March 27
