Former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service and former Presidential Advisor on Health, Anthony Nsiah-Asare, has defended the Akufo-Addo administration’s Agenda 111 initiative, insisting the nationwide hospital project was properly planned and adequately funded to address healthcare gaps across Ghana.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Super Morning Show on May 19, 2026, Dr Nsiah-Asare said he was surprised by suggestions that the ambitious healthcare project lacked financial backing or proper planning.
“I’m very much surprised because what people say when they are looking for power is different from what they do when they find it,” he stated.
According to him, the Agenda 111 project emerged from lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when weaknesses in Ghana’s healthcare infrastructure became more apparent.
“Government realised that we did not have enough hospitals across the country, and even as we speak now, we still do not have enough hospitals,” he said.
His comments come after President John Dramani Mahama criticised the previous administration’s decision to begin construction of all 111 hospitals simultaneously, describing the approach as financially unsustainable.
However, Dr Nsiah-Asare argued that the need for additional healthcare facilities was urgent, citing instances where patients reportedly died after being transferred between multiple hospitals in search of treatment.
“That is the reason why some years ago, we had a 70-year-old man taken to about seven different hospitals before he lost his life. Recently, we also had a similar case,” he noted.
He explained that the project was designed to improve access to healthcare by constructing district and regional hospitals in underserved communities, reducing pressure on existing facilities and limiting long-distance travel for patients.
“If we have hospitals serving as referral centres across the country, people will not have to travel long distances to access quality healthcare,” he said.
Dr Nsiah-Asare added that Agenda 111 formed part of a broader national healthcare strategy aimed at strengthening healthcare delivery from the grassroots level upward, including support for Community-based Health Planning and Services compounds, clinics, maternity homes, and district hospitals.
“With health insurance and accessible primary healthcare systems supporting health centres, clinics, maternity homes and CHPS compounds, then we are moving forward as a country,” he added.
He further disclosed that the government had identified major gaps in psychiatric healthcare and included plans to build additional psychiatric hospitals under the programme.
“We realised that all the psychiatric hospitals were facing challenges, so plans were made to build another psychiatric hospital in the middle belt and another in the northern sector,” he disclosed.
Addressing concerns over funding, Dr Nsiah-Asare maintained that the project had financial support from multiple sources, including COVID-19 relief funds, budget allocations, and oil revenues.
“Today, I want to tell everybody that yes, we started Agenda 111 with the equivalent of 100 million dollars from COVID money, the Oil Proceeds (Above Budget Formula Allocation),” he stressed.
He also questioned claims that no dedicated funding existed for the initiative, asking: “What has happened to it? Where is that money?”
