The Vice President Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agymang on Wednesday August 27, 2025, paid a working visit to the Ministry of Health. She was accompanied by her Chief of Staff, Alex Segbefia, and some other advisors at the Office of the Vice President.
The visit was to extend support to the Ministry in fulfilling its critical mandate. The Vice President assured the Minister and his team of her willingness to provide advice, guidance, and collaboration to enhance the effective functioning of the health sector.
The Health Minister, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh outlined significant progress made by the Ministry, including the addition of over 7,000 health professionals to the payroll, uncapping the NHIS, resulting in increased funding for the sector, introduction of a digital platform to simplify the nursing trainee application process and the implementation of the “No Fees Stress Policy,” which he said has significantly reduced fees for nursing students.
The Minister further added that there had been an improvement in tackling disease outbreaks such as cholera and meningitis, adding that the Ghana Medical Trust Fund (MahamaCares) has also been rolled out through the establishment of its Secretariat.
According to Akandoh, despite the gains made, key challenges remain, which he said included unemployment among health professionals, limited specialist training programmes, retooling challenges and inadequate support for the pharmaceutical industry.
In response, the Vice President proposed several interventions such as leveraging opportunities in exporting health professionals, while ensuring their welfare is safeguarded, the training of qualified technicians in hospitals to handle equipment maintenance and minor repairs, scale up training for specialists to meet the growing demands of the health sector and continuous public education and awareness campaigns, in partnership with other state agencies and the media, to improve service delivery.
The Vice President commended the Health Ministry for its ongoing interventions and reaffirmed government’s commitment to help improve conditions for both staff and patients.
She stressed the need for continuous dialogue in order to address the challenges raised as well as ensure effective reforms for a stronger and more responsive healthcare system.
