As a result, the Permanent Secretary and Registrar of the Rwanda Pharmacy Council, Dr Jean Damascene, was in the country to confer with key stakeholder agencies, particularly, the Pharmacy Council to acquaint himself with its best practices to improve pharmacy practice and training in Rwanda.

He also used the five-day knowledge and skill sharing visit, which ended last Sunday, to explore areas of collaboration and cooperation between the pharmacy councils of both countries for mutual benefits.

He held discussions with other stakeholder institutions such as the Ministry of Health, the Food and Drugs Authority, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, and the National Health Insurance Scheme, and visited regional offices of the Pharmacy Council and the teaching hospital.

Why Ghana

At a meeting with management of the Pharmacy Council in Accra last Wednesday, Dr Damascene said the Pharmacy Council of Rwanda again chose to understudy the operations of Ghana’s Pharmacy Council, because it had become a cornerstone in healthcare delivery.

“Ghanaian pharmacists are well trained professionals who carry out their work with high ethical and moral standards.

“Our historical experience has taught us that unity is strength, and forming partnerships with other councils can only lead to beneficial outcomes,” he said.

He recommended a joint steering committee that would explore the possibilities of the country exporting its excess pharmacy professionals to Rwanda to make up for the human resource deficit.

He said the committee would also explore how Ghanaian investors could invest in Rwanda’s pharmacy sector for mutual benefits.

Areas of cooperation

Dr Damascene mentioned the areas of cooperation the Rwanda Pharmacy Council was to collaborate with their Ghanaian counterparts to include exchange of the best practices in the regulation of the pharmacy profession, joint workshops, training and research.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global economic decline, and now more than ever, a need for an exchange of effective resource mobilisation strategies to restore and ensure financial sustainability is crucial,” he said.

Africa’s progress

Welcoming Dr Damascene, the Chairperson of the Pharmacy Council, Doris Addae-Afoakwa, expressed excitement about the collaboration because such initiatives would help to strengthen Africa for the benefit of its peoples.

“A lot of the times you find countries doing their own thing, reinventing the wheel, when we can actually learn from each other to boost and accelerate our respective countries’ development and the continent as a whole,” she said.

She expressed gratitude to Dr Damascene, the government of Rwanda and the Rwanda Pharmacy Council for initiating such laudable collaborative efforts.

The Registrar of Pharmacy Council, Dr Audu Rauf, said Dr Damascene’s decision to understudy the Pharmacy Council and others from other countries was a mark of good leadership.

Both pharmacy councils presented an overview of their institutions and discussed their differences and similarities.