There appears to be some confusion about the status of the Agenda 111 projects started by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government.
This confusion stems from contradictory statements on the number of health facilities that have been completed under the project and the amount of money needed to complete it by proponents of the John Dramani Mahama government.
President John Dramani Mahama, at a meeting with the Christian Council of Ghana on Sunday, February 23, 2025, gave figures on the project that were far different from statements made by his own appointees.
What President Mahama said:
President Mahama said that the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government completed only one of the Agenda 111 projects it started.
According to Mahama, the one hospital the Akufo-Addo government managed to complete out of the about 100 hospitals it promised was empty, without even a single piece of furniture in it.
The president made these remarks while criticising the decision of the previous government to complete hospitals at places where there were existing mission hospitals.
He pointed out that rather than starting the construction of new health facilities, the Akufo-Addo administration should have collaborated with faith-based organisations to make their existing health facilities better.
He also stated that a whopping $1.7 billion is needed to complete the project.
“We need $1.7 billion to be able to complete the hospitals. The one that they said they commissioned, there’s nothing in it, just one hospital. They finished the structure, but there’s not even a bed in the hospital,” he explained.
But Mahama’s figures are quite different from earlier figures announced by his own appointees, including his own spokesperson, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, and the Minister of Defence, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah.
What Felix Kwakye Ofosu said:
Felix Kwakye Ofosu, the Minister of State in charge of Government Communications, said that only 3 of the projects had been completed.
“If you look at this sector, there are significant challenges as we speak. The Agenda 111, which was heavily promoted by the previous government during the transition meetings, has only seen three projects completed. Even those, however, are not fully operational,” Ofosu Kwakye stated in an interview on TV3 on January 25, 2025.
He added, “Last week, they couldn’t admit patients. The president mentioned that 70 facilities are still not operational, and as of today, none of them are in a position to admit patients.”
He further disclosed that completing the remaining projects will require a substantial $1.4 billion (approximately 30 billion Ghana cedis), creating a huge financial burden for the government.
“We discovered that it will take a staggering $1.4 billion, nearly 30 billion Ghana cedis, to complete these projects,” Kwakye said.
Dr Edward Omane Boamah:
The Minister of Defence, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, also stated that an estimated $1.4 billion is needed to complete the ambitious Agenda 111 projects.
In a post shared on Facebook on January 4, 2025, Dr Omane Boamah said that none of the projects were functioning.
“None of the Agenda 111 hospitals is functioning. Uncompleted! US$1.4 billion needed to complete. The update was tagged under the NDC’s monitoring initiative, #EagleEye,” he wrote.
Dr Nsiah Asare:
The figures John Dramani Mahama gave led to a response by former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare, who played a key role in the implementation of Agenda 111 as Akufo-Addo’s Special Advisor on Health.
According to him, the president’s claim that only one of the Agenda 111 hospitals was completed by the previous government is false.
“As of January 6, 2025, when we left office, 101 of the projects had already started — two regional psychiatric hospitals and 99 district or municipal hospitals. More than 36 of them were over 70% complete. Three of the hospitals were commissioned on December 5, 2024, by the previous government. He says there is no equipment in there, but I know that there are beds and other equipment,” he said.
He added that only $1.4 billion is needed to complete the project and not the $1.7 billion stated by President Mahama.
About Agenda 111:
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cut the sod for the construction of the facilities on August 17, 2021, with a promise to complete the work within 18 months.
The plan to construct the hospitals was first announced in the 8th COVID-19 national address on April 26, 2020, by the President, months after the coronavirus pandemic hit Ghana.
It was initially “Agenda 88,” but the government later revised it to “Agenda 111.” The 23 additional facilities included 13 more district hospitals.
The standard 100-bed facilities, which will be in districts without hospitals, will also have accommodation for staff.
The beneficiary regions and respective breakdown are: Ashanti, 10; Volta, nine; Eastern, eight; Greater Accra, seven; Upper East, seven; Oti, five; Upper West, five; Bono, five; Western North, five; Savannah, three; Bono East, two; and North East, two.
The remaining include six regional hospitals in the newly created regions, two specialised hospitals in the middle and northern belts, as well as a regional hospital in the Western Region and the renovation of the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital.
BAI/AE
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