President John Dramani Mahama has stated that his government will require $1.7 billion to complete all unfinished Agenda 111 projects.
Speaking at a meeting with the Christian Council, Mahama noted that nearly 90 of the hospitals initiated under the Agenda 111 initiative by the previous Nana Addo-led government remain incomplete.
He criticized the approach taken by the previous administration, arguing that many of the locations selected for the Agenda 111 hospitals already had mission-built hospitals that could have been renovated and upgraded instead of starting new projects from scratch. However, he assured that his government would prioritize completing the unfinished hospitals rather than competing with mission hospitals.
“I made a statement that we’re going to move to a situation where, if the missions have a hospital in an area, we’re not going to come and compete with the mission by building another hospital. We’d rather use the resources to improve the Mission Hospital so that they provide service. Unfortunately, that was not followed in agenda 111, so there are many places where you have a Mission Hospital, we could have used that money to upgrade the facilities in the Mission Hospital,” he said.
Mahama further claimed that even the hospitals the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government touted as completed lack essential medical equipment, including hospital beds, making them non-operational.
He reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring that all the hospitals are fully completed to meet the healthcare needs of Ghanaians.