Treat healthcare as an investment, not a budget cost – Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama has called on African governments and investors to fundamentally change the way they approach healthcare financing, arguing that health must be treated as an investable economic sector rather than a social expenditure to be funded only when resources are available.“For decades, African Finance Ministers and global investors have made a fundamental error: they have treated health as a line-item cost—a social expenditure to be funded only when there is budget left over,” President Mahama said.

Addressing the Health Plenary of the Alamein Africa Forum in Alamein, Egypt, on Saturday, October 3, President Mahama said investment in health was central to Africa’s economic transformation, human capital development, job creation and macroeconomic stability.