About $1.4bn Needed To Complete Agenda 111 Projects – Akandoh

The Health Committee of Parliament has revealed that an amount of $1.4 billion would be required to complete all ongoing Agenda 111 projects.

The committee says that as of November 2023, over $251 million had been spent on the hospital projects, with 90 out of 102 at various stages of construction.

The Ranking Member on the Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, says the government’s commitment to the Agenda 111 projects is mere lip service.

“Mr. Speaker, the committee observed that, as of November 2023, $251.4 million has been spent and that they require about 1.4 billion to complete all the projects. The commitment of this government to Agenda 111 is just lip service. They need more than $1.4 billion to complete the whole project and after the commencement of the project, two to three years later, they have released only $251 million and this $251 million cannot even complete 20 percent of the whole project.”

“In this year’s budget, about GH¢1 billion has been allocated and even if you assume that all the GH¢1 billion will be disbursed, it means that they would have spent about 350 million and so if we really mean well for this country and not for political points, what prevented us from rolling out this project in phases?”

He added that out of the 307 ambulances procured by the government in 2020, 79 are not operational, with 12 involved in accidents.

“Mr. Speaker, out of the 307 ambulances that were imported into this country in 2020, about 79 have completely broken down and are not in operation and about 12 have been involved in accidents. All in all, about 91 of the ambulances are not in operation and so if we continue this way, four years to come, we will not have any ambulances left in the fleet.”

Mr Akandoh said rhese on the floor of parliament as the house approved an amount of GH¢15 billion as budget estimates for the services of the Ministry of Health for the year 2024.

The Ministry is expected to prioritize the production, deployment, and retention of the health workforce through labor market analysis and focus on the local production of anti-snake venom and other vaccines, with the newly created National Vaccine Institute as its first step towards local vaccine production.