21 Jul 2022

Investors have been called upon to consider Botswana’s primary health care system as an ideal space to invest in. 

Such investment would help the country achieve its goal of transforming health care delivery through digitalisation, Minister of Health Dr Edwin Dikoloti has said.

Contributing to  the discussion on Improving Health outcomes in Africa Through Innovative Solutions at the ongoing US Africa Business Summit, Dr Dikoloti said Botswana was looking forward to primary health care oriented business solutions.

“I, therefore, call on the private sector to come and participate in that space which extended to pharmaceutical manufacturing,” he said.

The minister assured investors that Botswana, with a population of just over two million, was best suited to manufacture vaccines that could be exported across the globe. Dr Dikoloti said the last two and half years had not been easy for Botswana, which, being a net importer of pharmaceuticals,  had to balance saving lives with medicine procurement.

When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, most African countries struggled to access Personal Protective Equipment, said the minister adding that testing people for the disease had been  a daunting task.

 He said thankfully, before vaccines became available, Batswana had heeded Ministry of Health calls to adhere to COVID-19 protocols.

Dr Dikoloti said so far the country had managed to vaccinate over 90 per cent of the target population.

“This did not come easy as we had to put in place a strategic rollout plan for vaccination,” he said.

Battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Dikoloti said Botswana was looking forward to partnerships that would revitalise the country’s primary health care.

Reflecting on Botswana’s HIV/AIDS pandemic experience, he said the country managed to save its population through strong partnerships and political will to engage in meaningful collaborations.

“We had a very willing government that pushed us to achieve more coupled with the will to comply with politically unpopular  interventions,” he said.

A US Global Public Policy representative, Ms Emily Gibbons concurred with Dr Dikoloti that Botswana exemplified an African country with potential for efficient collaborations.

She cited as fruitful collaborations the country’s response to  HIV/AIDS and elimination of Mother To Child Transmission of the disease.

Botswana had continued to demonstrate that potential under the US supported Human Papillomavirus Cancer programme, said Ms Gibbons. Ends