Health Minister and MP for Juaboso, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has claimed that the Agenda 111 hospital project was a strategic “trap” laid by the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.
According to the minister, the NPP had no genuine intention of completing the health facilities before leaving office, despite the massive scale of the project.
The remarks come in response to former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who recently urged the current administration to prioritise the completion and operationalisation of the hospitals.
Speaking at the centenary celebration of the Kyebi Government Hospital, the former president described the initiative as vital to improving national healthcare and stressed that the stalled projects must be put to use for the benefit of Ghanaians.
Agenda 111, launched during the Akufo-Addo administration, aimed to construct 111 hospitals across the country primarily in underserved districts to address infrastructure gaps exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an interview with Roland Walker on TV3 on Tuesday, April 14, Mr. Akandoh questioned the former president’s moral authority to demand the completion of the projects.
He noted that the previous administration spent over GH₵4.8 billion on the initiative without fully operationalising a single district hospital before the 2024 transition.
“It is a trap that they set. Right from day one as Ranking Member, I said it—they had no intention of completing these Agenda 111 hospitals,” Mr. Akandoh asserted.
Explaining the alleged strategy, the minister said:
“The plan was to start all these projects heading into the elections so they could campaign on them and ask Ghanaians to vote for continuity. If they lost, they would then pressure the new government to complete them, and if that failed, accuse the government of abandoning the projects. It is a trap, but they will not catch us we have a way of navigating it.”
Despite his sharp criticism of the project’s origins, Mr. Akandoh reaffirmed the government’s commitment to improving healthcare infrastructure.
He stated that John Dramani Mahama has directed the Ministry of Health to complete all inherited projects, including Agenda 111.
The minister added that the government aims to complete and make operational at least 10 of the hospitals within the current year.
By 1960news.com
