Ghana cannot cut off health aid overnight, former Deputy Health Minister and Akim Oda MP Alexander Akwasi Acquah has warned.
Speaking on PM Express on Monday, the member of Parliament’s Health Committee said the country is not yet in a position to abruptly detach itself from foreign support.
“Well, currently, I would say no, we just have to do something about it.”
The Akim Oda MP’s comments come after Ghana’s rejection of a US health deal.
Mr Acquah said the country’s dependence on external support remains deeply rooted, pointing to persistent challenges even when assistance arrives.
“Because even though I was in my former position as the Deputy Minister, I could not come to terms with the fact that we had aid in terms of logistics from foreign partners, and we could not just clear them from the ports.”
He said the contradiction becomes even sharper when the country still seeks to tax donated supplies.
“So even if the aid that is coming, we still want to take taxes on them to support our budgets, and now we say we want to be totally free from them. How do we survive?”
The former Deputy Minister said the reality of health financing makes an immediate break impractical.
“I mean this 15% declaration by the Abuja declaration still demanded that there’s that level of support from developed countries, developed partners.”
He argued that Ghana must instead confront inefficiency and waste within the public sector.
“And like Dr Nii Moi Thompson said, we may have to look into our systems and cut off all the waste, because there, there is a lot of waste within our public sector.”
Mr Acquah said the health sector has become especially vulnerable because it has long relied on external aid.
“You cannot take away the health sector, you know, because, most often than not, because we have relied on aid. It’s become one of the major motivations.”
He said the pressure is already being felt.
“I’m telling you, the health sector is suffering, because I know what is happening, especially when the USA and others got cut off.”
According to him, some critical areas had depended heavily on that support.
“There are certain areas that got a lot of motivation from some of this aid, and now that they are not coming, it’s become critical.”
He revealed that recent engagements with the Ghana Health Service had exposed the scale of the challenge ahead.
“Very recently, I think about a month or so, we met the Ghana Health Service boss and their agencies and all the program managers in their presentation gave us an indication of what is ahead if we do not sit up to look at the finance and health financing.”
For now, he said, Ghana still has a narrow window to rethink its approach.
“I thank God, it’s only the US that is playing this kind of game with us. There are some other donor agencies that are still with us, you know, and so it gives us an opportunity to start looking beyond it. And let’s look at our source.”
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