President Paul Kagame (center) chaired the meeting with AMA officials at Urugwiro Village
Kigali, Rwanda —President Paul Kagame, the African Union Champion for Domestic Health Financing, held high-level discussions with African Medicines Agency (AMA) officials to review the progress of the African Medicines Agency (AMA) and push for its swift, full operationalization in Kigali.
At Village Urugwiro, this on Monday, October 13, 2025, Kagame met with Amb. Amma Twum-Amoah, the AU Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development (HHS), and Dr. Delese Mimi Darko, the AMA’s inaugural Director General.
They discussions focused on the operationalisation of AMA and strengthening health systems across Africa.
The meeting comes months after the Second Ordinary Session of the AMA Conference of State Parties (CoSP) was held in Kigali from June 2–4, 2025, a landmark event where Dr. Darko, a renowned Ghanaian regulatory expert, was appointed to lead the organization.
The headquarters of the African Medicines Agency (AMA) are located in Kigali, Rwanda following a high-level decision to select Rwanda as the host country for the AMA headquarters during the 2022 African Union Executive Council meeting in Lusaka, Zambia.
Government of Rwanda and the African Union Commission (AUC) formally signed the Host Country Agreement in Kigali on June 10, 2023, marking an important legal step in establishing the agency.
The headquarters facility in Kigali was officially inaugurated in November 2024.
Facts Driving the Urgent Discussions:
The African Medicines Agency, headquartered in Kigali, is the AU’s specialized body created to harmonize and strengthen the regulation of medical products across the continent. The focus of this meeting revolves around several critical facts:
AMA’s Mandate: The agency’s primary goal is to improve access to quality, safe, and efficacious medicines for all African citizens by streamlining regulatory processes.
Kagame’s Champion Role: As the AU Champion for Domestic Health Financing, President Kagame continues to emphasize that strong national health systems and a move toward health self-reliance require dedicated domestic funding and political backing for bodies like AMA.
Operational Priority:AMA must move beyond its foundational phase to fully coordinate with National Medicines Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs) and Regional Economic Communities (RECs).
The agency is expected to support the growth of local pharmaceutical production—a key objective of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa (PMPA).
Leadership in Place: With Dr. Darko, the former CEO of the Ghana Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), now at the helm, the leadership structure needed to spearhead AMA’s mission is fully established.
This push on October 13, 2025, from Kigali, signals an intensified political commitment to finalize AMA’s setup and enable it to begin its crucial work of inspecting, coordinating, and standardizing medical product regulation across the African Union.
In other news, President Kagame also received Martin Chungong, Secretary-General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) parliament, who is on a three-day Official Visit to Rwanda.
President Kagame (right) also received Martin Chungong, Secretary-General of IPU
