President John Dramani Mahama has called for stronger continental collaboration to eliminate fake medical practitioners, forged professional qualifications and unlawful healthcare practices across Africa.
He said fraudulent practitioners posed a direct threat to patient safety and warned that no African country should become a refuge for professionals sanctioned in another jurisdiction.
President Mahama made the call during the opening of the 28th Annual International Conference of the Association of Medical Councils of Africa (AMCOA) in Accra.
Addressing medical regulators from across the continent, the President identified forged licences, professional impersonation, fraudulent continuing professional development certificates and misleading health claims as growing challenges requiring coordinated action.
“When a fraudulent practitioner enters a consulting room, every patient who enters that room becomes vulnerable. Because fraud recognises no borders, our response to fraud must be continental,” he said.
He advocated secure, lawful and timely exchange of verified information among African regulatory authorities to improve cross-border verification of professional credentials and disciplinary records.
President Mahama stressed that effective data sharing had become an essential instrument for protecting patients, particularly as health professionals increasingly moved across African borders.
He urged regulators to strengthen cooperation and develop harmonised systems that would prevent fraudulent practitioners from exploiting weaknesses in national regulatory frameworks.
The President expressed optimism that AMCOA would advance practical measures to improve credential verification, regulatory cooperation and patient protection throughout Africa.