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Former President John Dramani Mahama has taken the Akufo-Addo-led NPP Government to task over their “lofty promise” in relation to the construction of one hundred and eleven (111) hospitals, popularly known as the ‘Agenda 111’ hospitals which was made in 2020. The government is yet to complete a single hospital under the program despite giving numerous assurances of completion, which have all elapsed in the previous years, a situation the former president finds regrettable.
In a Facebook post made on Saturday, January 14 and sighted by DFS Live News, the 2020 Presidential Candidate of the largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) wrote “The ‘Agenda 111’ hospitals promise is in its 4th year, yet not a single hospital has been completed to support quality health care delivery.
This is contrary to the lofty promise made in 2020. The NPP must learn to take Ghanaians serious.
Enough of the slogans!” This comes after his comment earlier in the week under review in which Mr. Mahama called out the government for their “outrageous” deception of Ghanaians about the Domestic Debt Exchange Program, where the president himself emphatically announced that individual bondholders would not be affected in the debt restructuring but has turned out to be the exact opposite.
In April 2020, President Akufo-Addo, in his address to the nation on measures taken by his government in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, announced the preparedness of his government to construct 111 hospitals across the country to ensure Ghanaians have access to quality healthcare. He later launched the Agenda 111 Project on Tuesday, August 17, 2021 but has so far failed to deliver a single completed hospital despite assurances to that effect. In his Mid-year Budget presentation to Parliament in 2022, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta was confident that some of the hospitals under the program would be completed by the end of 2022, which is still yet to be realized.
According to the government, the project will cover the design, procurement, construction, equipping, and commissioning of 101 District Hospitals, 6 Regional Hospitals in the newly created regions, 1 Regional Hospital in the Western Region, 2 Psychiatric Hospitals in Kumasi and Tamale, and a redeveloped Accra Psychiatric Hospital. Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah in 2021 announced the government had secured a US$100 million start-up fund for the project.
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