We’ll need $1.7 billion to complete Agenda 111 hospitals — President Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama has said the government will require an estimated $1.7 billion to complete and furnish the Agenda 111 hospital projects commenced by the previous government across the country. 

He explained that the previous administration left over 90 hospital projects at different levels of completion, and only managed to complete one of the hospitals without furnishing it with the needed equipment.

The President was addressing a delegation from the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) at the Jubilee House in Accra last Sunday.

President Mahama also questioned the strategy adopted by the previous government in implementing the Agenda 111 project, saying, the government should have prioritised using resources to augment some already existing health centres in areas where hospitals existed instead of starting new projects which never saw the light of day.

“I was President, I made a statement that if the missions have a hospital in an area, we are not going to compete with missions’ hospitals by building new hospitals in those communities.

“We’d rather use the resources to improve the hospitals established by the missions to enhance capacity and provide service. Unfortunately, that was not followed in the case of Agenda 111.

“There are many places where there were mission hospitals and they could have used these resources to upgrade the mission hospitals, but they started new hospitals and they have not been able to finish them,” he said. 

Appeal

President Mahama said the state of the Agenda 111 project had been discussed at the Cabinet Meeting, with the Minister of Health expected to later present a detailed report on it at their next meeting.

He called on the missions to partner the government by taking some of the projects and completing and running them.

“I believe that if some of the missions are interested, we could get them to finish some of the hospitals and provide the service. The government can take some and the missions can also take some and complete them and provide service,” he stated. 

Illegal mining

President Mahama has described illegal mining across the country as “a major headache” due to the devastation caused by the menace in the forest reserves across the country.

He indicated that currently, an “estimated 1.8 million of our compatriots are involved in small-scale mining and that creates a big issue with regard to employment and displacement from small-scale mining”.

He said of the country’s 280 forest reserves, about 43 of them have been gravely affected by illegal mining, commonly known as “galamsey”.

New technologies

The President emphasised that although “small-scale mining is legal and our laws recognise it, it must be done in a responsible and sustainable manner” by employing new technology as practised in advanced countries to curtail illegal mining.

He announced the government’s plan to hold a conference with the small-scale miners across the country on the menace and also bring to their attention the new technologies being used in the extractive sector to encourage sustainable small-scale mining.  

On the operation of the new mining method and technologies, the President explained that “before you start small-scale mining, you must do what we call a leach dam which must be lined with plastic.

The leach dam, is used for washing the gold water.

“Afterwards, cleaning agents are used to treat the water in the dam.

These cleaning agents remove all the toxins in the water in the dam and then, it is discharged into the environment.

We will engage with them and bring some of these technologies to their attention,” the President explained.

Interventions

President Mahama said the government had kicked off operations in the forest reserves to contain the situation.

“We did one operation in the Tano-Nimere Forest Reserve; we’ve gotten the excavators out and we’re going to target them one after the other until we get all of them out.

I’ve asked them not to burn the excavators but confiscate them,” he said. 

He added that a mobile team had been established in the communities affected by illegal mining to complement the efforts of the Forestry Commission.