At this year's African Healthcare Manufacturing Trade Exhibition and Conference (AHMTEC 2025), Empower School of Health brought the spotlight to one of Africa’s most urgent priorities: workforce capacity building in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Held from October 7–9 at the Labadi Beach Hotel, Accra, Ghana, and hosted by FAPMA and Vizuri, the landmark session “Compete for Talent” brought together global trailblazers, highlighting Empower’s commitment to developing future-ready talent for Africa’s health manufacturing sector.

A Powerhouse Panel Shaping Africa’s Health Workforce

Moderated by Prof. Paul Lalvani (Founder & Executive Director, Empower School of Health), the panel tackled the continent’s critical skills gap and offered concrete pathways to sustainable local manufacturing.

Panelists and their affiliations included:

• Mary Ogangwu: Chief Operating Officer, Codix Pharma Limited & Codix Bio Limited (pioneering regulatory strategy and launching West Africa’s first large-scale RDT manufacturing plant).
• Jasper Sablah: Component Manager, PharmaVax Ghana Programme, GIZ Ghana (leading public-private partnerships and workforce strategies for Ghana’s vaccine manufacturing hub).
• Dr. Abebe Genetu Bayih: Acting Lead, Local Manufacturing, Africa CDC (driving Africa’s vaccine self-reliance agenda and spearheading the Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing).
• Philipp Conradi: Strategic Partnerships, Sartorius Stedim Biotech (bridging academia and industry to scale bioprocessing, tech transfer, and quality systems).
• Chishamiso Mawoyo : Health Education Lead Africa Upstream, International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank Group (investing in talent pipelines for healthcare innovation and advisory).

Bridging Skills Gaps and Nurturing Innovation

The engaging session opened with passionate stories from young professionals, showcasing the aspirations and challenges faced by Africa’s next generation of health industry leaders. The panelists shared rich, multi-sector experience from regulatory and investment perspectives to technical and operational strategies illuminating how essential it is to move from fragmented training efforts to holistic talent ecosystems.

The discussions underscored the urgency of addressing talent gaps across all levels of the health manufacturing value chain. Experts highlighted strategies for scaling up upskilling and re-skilling programs, establishing regional centers of excellence such as Empower Academy Nigeria, and embedding continuous learning through blended models, digital micro-learning, mentorship, and industry-led curriculum design. These approaches, they agreed, are essential to nurturing innovation, improving retention, and building a resilient pharmaceutical and health manufacturing workforce that can drive Africa’s self-reliance agenda forward.

Read more about Empower’s transformative initiatives in pharmaceutical manufacturing on the African continent, including capacity building, advanced manufacturing services, and strategic partnerships accelerating local production here