Politics of Monday, 13 February 2023
Source: Richard Obeng Bediako, Contributor
National Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress(NDC), George Opare Addo, has chastised the government on its slow pace in delivering the Agenda 111 hospital projects.
According to him, "the Agenda 111 project is another strategy by NPP to deceive Ghanaians going into the 2024 elections."
It called on citizens to ponder “if they can believe such a project is tenable since the government failed to construct a single district hospital in the five years at the helm of affairs and not a single one of them has been delivered.
George Opare Addo insisted that the government failed to deliver the 88 hospital projects promised and wondered whether agenda 111 was feasible since it failed to construct a single district hospital in the five years at the helm of affairs.
"The president will cut sod for the first set of hospitals as if cutting sod is anything significant, bearing in mind that he cut sod for supposed major hospital projects including proposed Eastern Regional Hospital and La General Hospital which have not seen a single block laid one year after the fanfare," George Opare Addo told Samuel Huntor on Amayonsem on Accra-based Original TV.
"They are obviously setting you up to believe that they are failing with Agenda 111, he continued. When the President first cut the sod in 2021, as you may know, he promised the wonderful people of this nation that the project would be finished in 12 to 18 months. He now asserts, "No, I will complete before I cede power in 2024."
The Akufo-Addo-led government has secured a US$100 million start-up fund through the Ghana Investment Infrastructure Fund (GIIF) for the commencement of works on the ‘Agenda 111’ district, specialized and regional hospitals across the country.
The Agenda 111 project includes 101 district hospitals, six regional hospitals in the newly created regions, two specialized hospitals in the middle and northern belts, as well as a regional hospital in the Western Region and renovation of the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital.
The objective of the Project was to significantly deepen the delivery of quality healthcare at the district level, boost access to healthcare services for all citizens towards ensuring the attainment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal Three.