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The Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr Frank Amoakohene, has revealed that three out of the five Agenda 111 hospital projects in the Ashanti Region have been completed and are currently in use.
The facilities, located in Twedie, Suame, and Drobonso, were initially inaugurated by the previous government on December 4, 2024, but remained non-operational due to a lack of staff and medical equipment, including beds.
“For the record, when I assumed office as regional minister, none of them was functioning or operationalised,” Dr Amoakohene told the Local Government and Rural Development Committee of Parliament on Tuesday.
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He was responding to a question from the NPP MP for Suame, John Darko, who sought an update on the status of Agenda 111 projects in the region.
Dr Amoakohene explained that during a February 2025 inspection with the Minister of Health, contractors indicated that while the facilities were close to completion, some finishing works were outstanding.
“With the prompt intervention by the Health Minister, we have been able to operationalise three out of the five that were near completion,” he said.
He added that the Oforikrom project is also nearing completion, and once finalised, it will be opened to the public.
“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 since they were started with taxpayers’ money, we open them for use,” he assured.
Dr Amoakohene also outlined measures being undertaken to reduce overreliance on the central government for infrastructure development.
He said 80% of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) had been disbursed to metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), with most receiving at least two quarters’ allocation.
The funds have been earmarked for specific projects:
- 10% for furniture to support rural schoolchildren.
- 10% for two Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds per district.
Priority will be given to abandoned or ongoing CHPS projects, which will result in 86 new CHPS compounds across the region, significantly boosting rural healthcare delivery.
The minister assured the committee that several major health projects are on track for completion:
- Afari Military Hospital and the 250-bed Ashanti Regional Hospital at Sewua will be completed by the end of this year.
- The KNUST Medical Centre has been taken over by GETFund, which is providing $48 million to complete it.
- The Komfo Anokye Maternity Block has been handed to a contractor for completion within a year, with strong presidential commitment behind it.
Touching on road infrastructure, Dr Amoakohene announced that the Outer Kumasi Ring Road project is a top priority under the government’s “Big Push” initiative.
The project aims to divert heavy trucks away from Kumasi’s central business district, providing a direct route to the northern parts of the region and Burkina Faso, easing congestion in the city.
The minister’s briefing underscores the government’s efforts to operationalise inherited health projects, improve rural infrastructure, and expand critical road networks to support the Ashanti Region’s development agenda.
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