Abstract
•Support for decolonisation of vaccine production in Ghana profiled.•Three segments of vaccine ethnocentric consumers identified.•Influences vary by vulnerability to infectious diseases.•Distrust in capabilities of African scientists decreases vaccine nationalism.•Segmented marketing is germane to improving local vaccine support and uptake.
While vaccine production localization is essential worldwide, it is particularly crucial for Africa. This continent is more vulnerable to disease burdens and also lags behind other continents in terms of access to vaccines. Moreover, many people in Africa have a long-standing apathy towards locally curated products and services. This mindset raises the question of whether Africans will support African-made vaccines and what the associated reasons are. Guided by the theories of nationalism and import substitution industrialisation, we developed and tested eight hypotheses. We analysed survey data from 6,731 residents backed by key informant interviews in Ghana to answer this question. In all, three types of local vaccine consumers were discovered: Afrocentric-ethnocentrics, Apathetic-Afrocentrics and Afrocentric-Fence Sitters. These consumer types and what define them are useful in public health communication campaigns aimed at galvanising support for local vaccines.