By Ghana News
Copyright ghanamma
Three out of the five Agenda 111 hospital projects in the Ashanti Region have been completed by the current government and are currently in use, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr Frank Amoakohene, has stated.
He said the three projects, located in the Twedie, Suame and Drobonso constituencies, were first inaugurated by the previous government on December 4, 2024, but were not functional due to a lack of staff and beds.
“For the record, when I assumed the office as Regional Minister, none of them was functioning or was operationalised,” he said, when he appeared before the Local Government and Rural Development Committee of Parliament yesterday.
He disclosed this when he responded to a question by the New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Suame, John Darko, who asked him to brief the committee members on the status of Agenda 111 projects in the Ashanti Region.
No project abandoned
Dr Amoakohene said before the completion of the three hospital projects, he had visited the facilities together with the Minister of Health in February 2025.
At the project sites, he said the contractors indicated that they were not done, but the one that was close to completion was about 95 per cent complete.
“With the prompt intervention by the Health Minister, we have been able to operationalise three out of the five that were near completion.
“Another project at Oforikrom is nearing completion, and once we complete it, we should be able to operationalise it and make sure it is open for use.
“So, we have not abandoned the projects the New Patriotic Party left for us; we are taking very good care of them, and we will make sure that once they were started with their taxpayers’ money, we open them for use,” he assured.
Funds for projects
Briefing the committee on legacy projects in the Ashanti Region, Dr Amoakohene said the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) and the Local Government Ministry had made provision to ensure that the region would not always depend on the central government for projects.
He said 80 per cent of the Common Fund had been made available to the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, with most of them having received a minimum of two quarters of their funds.
Those funds, he said, were tied to projects that most of the assemblies had started.
Giving a breakdown of how the funds would be utilised, he said 10 per cent would be used to purchase furniture to support schoolchildren in the rural schools and 10 per cent to construct two community-based health compounds for each assembly (CHPS).
“With regards to the CHPS, we are giving priority to old or ongoing or abandoned ones so that we will be able to complete them.
“So if we are to go by that two CHPS compounds per district, it means that we will benefit from 86 CHPS compounds across the region, and we should be able to deliver health care to the doorstep of most of the people,” he said.
Legacy projects
Briefing the committee on legacy projects in the region, Dr Amoakohene gave an assurance that the Afari Military Hospital and the 250-bed Ashanti Regional Hospital at Sewua would be completed this year.
For the KNUST Medical Centre, he stated that the facility had been adopted by the GETFund, which was providing $48 million to complete the project.
On the Komfo Anokye Maternity Block, the minister stated that the President was committed to it and a contractor had been mobilised to complete it within a year.
Speaking about road infrastructure, he said the region’s share of the “Big Push” would see the outer Kumasi Ring Road projects as a priority.
“This Ring Road will divert the big trucks that go through Kumasi and even to Burkina Faso to avoid using the central business area of Kumasi and be able to access the northern part of the region,” he said.