Ghana’s implementation of the medical drone delivery project which will supply essential drugs and blood to health facilities throughout the country, has received widespread commendation.
The project, although not the first in the sub-region after Rwanda implemented same, has become a model for other countries on the continent.
Alhaji Umar Farouk Aliu Mahama, the son of Ghana’s late Vice President, who spoke at the 9th Annual Oxford Africa Conference at the Oxford University in the United Kingdom on the theme ‘Showcasing and Scaling up Indigenous Innovations in Healthcare and Wellness’, described the project as a crucial intervention in healthcare delivery.
“I speak about one of Africa’s largest drone delivery services at Omenako in the Eastern Region to improve healthcare delivery, especially in hard-to-reach areas. The project, christened: “Fly to Save a life,” uses drones to operate a 24-hour delivery of essential medical supplies and blood products to 2,000 health facilities”, he told hundreds of participants at the event.
He underscored the significance of the project which is expected to serve over 14 million Ghanaians across the country, especially in the remote areas, to deliver on-demand and emergency deliveries of 148 different vaccines and life-saving medications.
“Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, at the launch of the project said the drone medical delivery service represented a major step towards giving everyone in the country universal access to life-saving medicines, adding that no one in Ghana should die because he or she could not access the medicine needed in an emergency situation”.
Alhaji Farouk observed that these and many other interventions feed into the vision of his late father in providing various social interventions at the grassroots for the less privileged, adding that it would not have been possible without the intervention and contribution of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
He took the opportunity to catalogue achievements chalked under the Aliu Mahama Foundation in the areas of health for inmates of various prisons across the country, and capacity building for women and farmer-based organisations acknowledging the president for his numerous contributions in this regard.
“We have not achieved all these laurels without the active support of the leadership of the country, the President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, a man who has shown principal commitment to the welfare of the people of Ghana. We have achieved these milestones because the President has supported us both materially and morally to implement these initiatives” he emphasized.
The 9th Oxford Africa conference
Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama becomes the first young politician from Northern Ghana to speak to students of the prestigious Oxford University. This years’ conference convened around the theme: Asserting Africa’s Relevance: Locally, Continentally and Globally.
Through interactive panels, keynote speeches and a BBC moderated debate, the theme explored pathways to asserting Africa’s relevance by: leveraging indigenous assets, critically reflecting on regional integration, and engaging with global priorities.
Farouk Mahama speaks at Black History Month event in UK Parliament
In November 2018, Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama, visited the Palace of the Westminster House of Parliament, United Kingdom, as part of activities marking the Black History Month celebration in the UK.
The event was organized by Tony Tokumbu Fernandez, an International multi-award winning author, broadcast journalist & Poet, in collaboration with MPs Alok Sharma and Hellen Grant.
Farouk Aliu Mahama, a business executive, who aspires to be a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Yendi Constituency delivered a speech as a guest speaker at the 6th edition of the celebration.
About Farouk Aliu Mahama
Born on April 27, 1981, Alhaji Umar Farouk Aliu Mahama belongs to a prominent political family as the son of H.E Alhaji Aliu Mahama and H.E Hajia Ramatu Mahama( Former Second Lady of the Republic of Ghana, 2001-2009). His father was Ghana’s first Muslim Vice-President and the first and only Dagomba to have risen to that political height. His paternal grandfather, Zongo Naa Mahama, was the Zongo Chief of Yendi, the traditional capital of Dagon.
Farouk Aliu Mahama’s maternal grandfather, Alhaji Imoro Egala, was Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister in the First Republic (1960-1961) and later Trade and Industries Minister. His maternal grandfather was the first black chairman of Ghana Cocoa Board and the founder of People’s National Party, the mother party of People’s National Convention (PNC).
Education
He began his basic education at Sakasaka Experimental Presby, Tamale and was later enrolled in the Achimota School. He proceeded to Prempeh College in Kumasi for his secondary education and later to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Later, Farouk earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). He now holds a Master’s degree in Supply Chain Management from the Coventry University in England.
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By: citinewsroom.com|Ghana