From Cyriacus Nnaji, Lagos
African health manufacturers, suppliers, investors and policymakers are set to converge on Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the 2026 edition of the African Health Manufacturers, Technology, Exhibition and Conference (AHMTEC 2026).
The conference, scheduled to hold at the Ethiopian Skylight Hotel in central Addis Ababa, will run from October 26 to 28, 2026, with the theme: “Industrialise to Commercialise.”
According to the organisers, this year’s edition marks a shift from capacity building to achieving commercial scale, with focus on production that can compete in regional and global markets.
The event is hosted by the Federation of African Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (FAPMA), Vizuri Health Dynamics, and the Ethiopian Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies Manufacturing Industries Sectorial Association (EPMSMISA), in partnership with Health 4 Development (H4D).
Sessions will run on two tracks. The first track, Industrialise, will address the operating environment for manufacturers, including policy, regulation and incentives. The second track, Commercialise, will focus on enterprise issues such as operations, portfolio strategy and market access.
Key topics include regulatory harmonisation and the African Medicines Agency, pooled procurement, financing and investment readiness, pricing and procurement policy, diagnostics manufacturing and active pharmaceutical ingredient development.
The programme opens on the evening of Monday, October 26, with a ceremony and welcome reception among exhibitors, while plenary and technical sessions hold on October 27 and 28.
Chair of the AHMTEC 2026 Secretariat, Ann-Marie Hosang-Archer, said the conference builds on the gains of the two previous editions.
“AHMTEC brings manufacturers, regulators, policymakers and investors into one room to bridge the gap between industrialisation and commercial success,” she said. “People come here to make deals, challenge norms that are not working, influence policy, share what has and has not worked, and build the solutions that move African manufacturing forward.”
The 2026 programme will also report progress on initiatives launched at AHMTEC 2025 in Accra, Ghana, which drew 264 participants from 18 countries, including 60 manufacturers.
These include the Accra Declaration, in which African manufacturers outlined calls to action on market access, regulatory harmonisation and coordinated investment, and the African Manufacturing Market Intelligence and Network Analysis (AMMINA) platform, a searchable database of over 750 health manufacturers and more than 2,500 products across 18 countries.
AHMTEC 2025 also featured the launch of Unitaid’s $50 million Regional Manufacturing for Equitable Access in Africa (RMEA) portfolio, supporting African manufacturers in producing quality-assured medicines and diagnostics for HIV, malaria and maternal health.
