Former Minister of Health, Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye, has strongly defended the integrity of the National e-Health Project, dismissing claims made by his successor and warning against what he described as “a dangerous attempt to discredit a working national system for political or commercial motives.”
In a lengthy Facebook post, Dr Okoe-Boye provided a detailed chronology of the project, its funding, scope, and progress, while debunking several “false claims” currently circulating about the initiative.
The National e-Health Project, he explained, was launched in 2016 to digitise and network all government health facilities across Ghana. The Ministry of Health (MoH) contracted Lightwave e-Healthcare Solutions Ltd, a wholly Ghanaian-owned firm, to implement the project after a successful pilot involving 25 facilities in the Central Region.
Following the pilot’s success, the Ministry sought approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) for a nationwide rollout. While the PPA initially approved the contract at US$186.79 million, a value-for-money audit by the MoF later fixed the project cost at US$100 million, which was eventually signed on March 29, 2019, for a three-year term.
The rollout, Dr Okoe-Boye said, was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, global supply chain disruptions, and non-compliance by some facilities, leading to two extensions—first to April 2023 and later to December 2024.
Oversight was provided by a Steering Committee chaired by the Health Minister and included the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, MoH’s IT Directorate, and CEOs of teaching hospitals.
According to Dr Okoe-Boye, the approved $100 million covered the networking of 950 health facilities, training of more than 150,000 health workers, and maintenance services.
So far, Lightwave has successfully digitised:
- 4 Teaching Hospitals
- 6 Regional Hospitals
- 243 District/Municipal Hospitals
- 2 Psychiatric Hospitals
- 49 Polyclinics
- 157 Health Centres
He revealed that payments to date amount to US$76.99 million—62% from the Ministry of Finance and 38% from the National Health Insurance Authority—with an outstanding balance of US$23 million. A reconciled report also showed an unutilised vendor advance of US$10.6 million as of December 2024.
Dr Okoe-Boye refuted a series of allegations made against the project and its implementing company:
- Lightwave is not foreign.
“It is a 100% Ghanaian-owned company incorporated in 2015,” he wrote, stressing that claims of foreign ownership were fabricated to malign the company. - The system was never switched off.
He clarified that Lightwave only informed the ministry of the contract’s expiration and requested a renewal — a lawful step under contractual terms. “The minister bypassed the dispute-resolution clause and unilaterally engaged a new vendor,” he said. - Health data remains in Ghana.
Contrary to reports that Ghanaian health data sits in India, he stated:
“Each health facility has its own local server, and backups are stored at the ministry’s own data centre in Accra. Ghana’s health data has always resided in Ghana.” - Hardware quality met specifications.
“The contract required equipment that met technical standards, not specific brands — and Lightwave met every specification,” he asserted. - The new GHIMS platform is not state-owned.
Dr Okoe-Boye noted that GHIMS — being promoted as Ghana’s new e-health system — is itself a private company. “It has digitised fewer than five facilities and lacks a national pilot,” he revealed.
The former minister expressed deep concern over what he termed procedural violations and financial waste. He alleged that the current ministry leadership denied Lightwave access to respond to an audit report that remains unpublished.
He also questioned the legality of the Attorney-General’s dual role as government adviser and arbitrator in the dispute — a situation that, he said, violates the original contract’s provisions.
“The unilateral termination of a functional health system endangers continuity of care and risks data loss for over 25 million Ghanaians,” he warned.
Dr Okoe-Boye criticised the current leadership’s decision to pay nearly half the value of the original contract to a new vendor to redo already completed work. “If even 20% of that sum is spent duplicating work, it would constitute gross financial waste,” he said.
He recommended that the Chief of Staff intervene to mediate between the Ministry of Health and Lightwave e-Healthcare Solutions to ensure transparency, protect Ghana’s investment, and prevent duplication.
Concluding his post, the former health minister said it was unfair to describe the e-health system as a “mess”, given the progress made:
“Over 150,000 health workers trained, 450+ facilities networked, and seamless NHIS integration achieved — these are tangible results. Calling this legacy a failure is both inaccurate and disrespectful to the Ghanaian professionals who built it.”
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