A minority member of the Health Committee, Dr Kingsley Agyemang, has accused the Mahama-led administration of prioritising presidential jets over the health needs of Ghanaians.
The Abuakwa South MP’s comments follow the presentation of the 2025 budget by Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson, which he says fails to address major health-sector promises in the NDC manifesto.
Speaking to journalists during a post-budget analysis, Dr Agyemang argued that the allocation to the nursing training allowance in the 2026 budget has dropped by nearly GH¢300 million, despite the government’s own commitments.
“There are certain key promises they made to the Ghanaian people that both the 2025 and 2026 budgets have not even touched.
“First, they said they were going to establish clinics at markets and transport terminals. This was a very good thing because access to healthcare is very, very important, especially in medical emergencies.”
On rural healthcare, he noted that even though the NDC promised to deploy mobile medical and dental vans, “I come from a rural constituency, and I am yet to see a medical outreach or medical van going round my constituency.”
He also criticised the government for failing to provide any indication of its pledge to upgrade senior high school sickbays into functional satellite clinics.
“Upgrading all school sickbays into functional satellite clinics, you’re in your second year of government, yet this has not been touched on in the budget.”
Dr Agyemang said workers expecting improved occupational health and safety standards would also be disappointed, as this too is absent from the financial plans.
“They said they were going to implement occupational and health standards across workplaces so that the workplace will be safe and good for any worker in the public sector. That is yet to see any expression.”
He further questioned the absence of promised tax waivers and incentives for health workers.
“They said they were going to give tax waivers and professional incentives for health workers. Ghana Health Service workers, have you been given any tax waivers? Have you been given any tax incentives?” he queried.
On insurance for frontline staff, he argued that: “They said they were going to give risk exposure insurance for frontline workers. The NPP did it during the COVID era. I am yet to see this expressed in the 2026 budget.”
A major concern for him is the steep cut in the nurses’ training allowance budget.
“The budget allocation for the nurses’ training allowance in the 2025 budget was GH¢770 million. This year’s 2026 budget has reduced it to GH¢474 million, a reduction of nearly GH¢300 million.”
He said this cut undermines the country’s human resource capacity for healthcare. He also raised alarms over the government’s silence on its pledge to construct two new nurses’ training schools.
“They said to us in last year’s budget that they were going to construct two new nurses’ training schools, and the budgetary allocation was GH¢40 million. To date, there has not been any evidence of this construction.”
Dr Agyemang challenged the government’s readiness to invest “millions of cedis” in new presidential and military jets while allocating what he described as an inadequate sum to the Health Ministry, especially as the country battles severe health complications linked to polluted water and food from galamsey activities.
“The total allocation of the budget to the health sector is just about sixteen million. The ratio you express to the health sector is less than 8 per cent, when the Abuja Declaration encourages member states to allocate a minimum of 15 per cent.”
He stressed that with the growing health toll of galamsey, government should be directing more resources into healthcare rather than luxury expenditures.
“When we are confronted with this, why do you put about GH¢12 billion into acquiring presidential jets when your health sector is struggling to make 17 million and at the same time, are confronted with galamsey?”
According to him, the health allocation is “unhealthy” and reflects misplaced priorities in the 2026 budget.