Ghana’s Minister for Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has called on medical regulatory authorities across the continent to adopt responsive frameworks that transform health workforce migration into structured opportunities for institutional growth and equitable service delivery.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 28th Annual International Conference of the Association of Medical Councils of Africa (AMCOA) in Accra, the Minister emphasized that standard retention efforts alone cannot halt the global mobility of healthcare professionals.
Addresssing an audience that included President John Dramani Mahama, international delegates, and regulatory leaders, the Minister noted that professional mobility must be actively managed to prevent the destabilisation of local health infrastructure.
“Migration should not have to produce a winner and a loser. With proper planning and cooperation, we can increasingly turn what has traditionally been described as brain drain into brain sharing,” the Minister stated.
The Minister urged regulators to streamline temporary registration pathways, leverage digital tools for remote specialist participation, and establish cross-border verification mechanisms. These measures, according to the Ministry, will enable African health specialists living in the diaspora to contribute directly to local training, medical research, and specialized clinical care without sacrificing regulatory rigor.
Highlighting the economic and operational realities facing the sector, the Minister explained that bilateral arrangements with recruiting nations must yield tangible benefits for source countries, including faculty support, skills transfer, and direct investment in domestic training institutions.
Underlining the reliance on accurate data, the Minister indicated that regulatory bodies hold critical registration metrics required to properly map global workforce movement and address emerging local shortages.
“We cannot effectively manage a workforce that we cannot adequately map,” the Minister remarked, urging AMCOA member nations to deepen information sharing and harmonize regulatory frameworks to treat Africa’s health workforce as a shared continental resource.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
