President Akufo Addo has commended his wife First Lady of the Republic, Mrs Rebecca Akufo Addo for her selfless service to Ghana in the last three years in various areas of public and social support.

Addressing attendees of the 6th annual conference of the Merck Foundation Africa Asia Luminary at the Kempinski Gold Coast Hotel under the theme; “Together for a Better Future,” President Akufo Addo had occasion to publicly commend the First Lady for championing the development of the cause of women and children in Ghana.

“As the African Union’s Gender Champion and as co-chair of the United Nations group of eminent advocates of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals SDGs, I am doubly happy to be here especially as it gives me the rare opportunity of sharing the same stage with Rebecca and allows me to pay tribute publicly to her for the widely acclaimed sterling work she’s been doing for our nation for nearly three years as Ghana’s First Lady in culture, education, health, and the advancement and protection of women and children. Rebecca, ayekoo, obo) mmodin [Translated, congratulations and well done]” the President said.

Universal Health Coverage

In his address, President Akufo Addo noted that Ghana plans to achieve universal health coverage by 2030 which is defined in the Ghanaian context as all people in Ghana having timely access to high-quality health services irrespective of their ability to pay at the point of use.

“We are determined to promote greater policy coherence and coordination through all of society and health for all policy approaches. We commit to working with institutions such as the Merck Foundation and promoting public-private partnerships to scale up the implementation of innovative solutions. Our goal is to establish in our country, a strong, accessible health care system of world-class quality which will guarantee the health and well-being of our people,” President Akufo Addo said.

CEO of Merck Foundation

Chief Executive Officer of the Merck Foundation and Co-chairperson of the 6th edition of the Merck Africa Asia Luminary, Dr. Rashad Kelej, in her remarks was full of praise for Ghana for accepting to host the 6th edition of the Merck Foundation conference and to the First Lady for accepting to co-chair the conference with her. She indicated that the organization will continue to offer its flagship training programme of fertility specialists in order to assist the African continent to deal with the infertility phenomenon among her women.

Merck Foundation Conference

The two-day Merck Foundation conference taking place in Ghana from the 29th to the 30th of October, has brought together about ten (10) First Ladies from the African continent. They include First Ladies from Nigeria, Chad, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Liberia, and Burundi. The conference also has someone thousand (1,000) healthcare professionals and researchers drawn from fifty-eight (58) countries in attendance.

The Merck Foundation

The Merck Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany, that aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people and advance their lives through science and technology.

Their efforts are primarily focused on improving access to quality & equitable healthcare solutions, building healthcare, scientific research & media capacity and empowering people in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) with a special focus on women and youth in under-served communities.

Merck Foundation strives to work closely with partners that are African First Ladies, Ministries of Health, Education, Information & Communication, Gender, academia, research institutions, media and arts in building healthcare capacity and addressing health, social & economic challenges in developing countries.

Together with its partners, the Merck Foundation supports programs that raise awareness of disease prevention and early detection through access to information, health and change of mindset. The Merck Foundation also focuses on activities that contribute towards the Sustainable Development Goals as outlined by the United Nations.