Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, Ranking Member of Parliament's Health Committee, says Ghana needs to domestically raise funds to sustain immunization efforts.

"We do not have to wait to be hit by the unexpected before we prepare towards it, presently all initiatives towards epidemic preparedness and immunization are donor funded," he said.

Mr Akandoh, who was speaking at an immunization financing forum in Accra on Thursday said there was the need to develop structures to finance immunization initiatives locally.

He suggested that the government could look at generating funds from oil revenues and the mining sector, saying "whether you like it or not, there is a direct correlation between the health of the people and the economy of the country.

The forum organized by SEND-Ghana, a non- governmental organization created a platform for stakeholders in the health sector to discuss how immunization vaccines and logistics can be domestically financed at the national and district budgets annually.

It was on the theme "Sustaining Domestic Financing for immunization and epidemic preparedness in Ghana: the role of national and local government in the 2022 budget and beyond".

Mrs Harriet Nuamah Agyemang, Senior Programmes Officer, SEND-Ghana said the country required over USD 514,177,471 to fund immunization activities between 2020 and 2024 of the projected amounts, a little over half; USD 266,521879 has been assured.

She said the onset of the COVID-19 contributed to some hindrances in routine immunizations services leading to a decline in the national coverage from 97.2 per cent in 2019 to 94.2 per cent in 2020.

Mrs Nuamah said before the COVID-19 pandemic, some districts in the Ashanti, Central, Western, Volta and Greater Accra regions recorded below 80 per cent coverage against the national figure of 97 per cent.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has reiterated the importance of epidemic preparedness including; routine immunization and vaccination," she added.

She stressed that the implications of low immunization financing after 2026 could include the resurfacing of childhood diseases like polio, rubella, and measles.