Agenda 111 is nothing extraordinaire – Alex Segbefia

A former Minister of Health, Alex Segbefia, says the government’s ambitious plan to build 111 hospitals across the country is just a repackaged plan that may not see the light of day.

Speaking on Citi TV’s Point of View, Mr. Segbefia posited that it is needless commending the government for an intervention that is not new.

“We have been building hospitals in districts for a long period. From Rawlings right to the time of Mills, and to the time Mahama, so this idea of every district should have a hospital is not new. You decide to package it differently and call it Agenda 111.”

The former Minister also rehashed the Minority’s concerns over inadequate funding for the project.

He added, “There is no funding for the project. They have not told us where they will get the funding for the project. We have been here before. The same way they promised the 88 is the same way they are promising the 111.”

Last Tuesday, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cut the sod for the commencement of the construction of the Trede District Hospital in the Atwima Kwanwoma District in the Ashanti Region.

Meanwhile the Director of Communications of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buaben Asamoah has said, the opposition NDC is resorting to making false claims about the feasibility of the government’s Agenda 111 initiative because the project threatens NDC’s political fortunes.

According to him, the NDC is frightened by the positive impacts that the Agenda 111 will have on Ghanaians.

“For open political purposes founded on the spirit of non-performance and incompetence, the NDC wants an initiative that is set to benefit millions of Ghanaians stopped just because it threatens their assumptions of the 2024 election. The NDC sees Agenda 111 as a game-changer to defeat their archaic model of regime change every eight years. They are afraid we will break the eight. Agenda 111 complements major reforms in the health sector” he said at a media engagement in Accra on Friday, August 20, 2021.

Background

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, first announced the project in April 2020 during his eighth update on COVID-19.

Presenting the 2021 mid-year budget review in Parliament on Thursday, July 29, 2021, the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, disclosed that the government had decided to execute the initiative in two phases, with the first phase being the processes completed.

The second phase, he said, was the actual construction of 88 district hospitals.

“Mr Speaker, the government and the project coordinating team have worked tirelessly on phase one, and I am happy to report that pre-contract works have now been completed for 88 sites for the district hospitals.

“We expect to commence phase two (construction to begin) three weeks from now, from 17th August, 2021,” the Finance Minister stated.

Mr Ofori-Atta said the government had already engaged over 20 local consulting firms through a lead project consultant to provide architectural and engineering designs as well as project management support towards the execution of the project.