Claim: The La General Hospital project was 80% complete by 2024
Source: Akosua Manu, aide to former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia
Verdict: False
Researched by Samuel Nii Adjetey
An aide to former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Akosua Manu, claimed the La General Hospital project was 80% complete by 2024, questioning why an additional GH¢130 million has been allocated to it this year.
Akosua Manu, a 2024 parliamentary candidate for the Adentan constituency on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), shared the claim on X as a rebuttal to the Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh’s announcement that the current government has allocated GH¢130 million for the completion of the hospital.
On October 9, 2025, the Minister posted: “This morning, I visited the site of the La General Hospital, which was demolished in March 2020, for reconstruction. President Mahama is committed to completing abandoned health projects. This year, Government has allocated Ghc 130 million to the project. Upon completion, the hospital will serve residents of La and surrounding areas.”
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Akosua Manu shared the post with the caption in the screenshot below.
Background
The La General Hospital, located in the La Dadekotopon Municipality of the Greater Accra Region, was a key public health facility serving thousands of residents before it was demolished in 2020 due to structural concerns.
Despite an official sod cutting by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, reconstruction officially began in August 2023 and well into 2024, Akufo-Addo’s final year in office.
However, the project has faced political controversy and funding debates, as figures from both the NPP and NDC have made competing claims about its level of completion, cost, and timelines.
Was the La General Hospital 80% complete by 2024? This fact-check seeks to verify the claim.
Fact-check
To verify the claim, GhanaFact reviewed publicly available records relative to pronouncements by former Health Ministers and former President Akufo-Addo.
August 2020
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo officially cut the sod for the La General Hospital Redevelopment Project on August 10, 2020.
At the ceremony, the president explained that the old structure had developed “gaping cracks which made the facility unfit for use,” prompting its demolition and redevelopment into a 160-bed modern hospital.
The €68 million project was to be financed through Standard Chartered Bank (UK) with an export credit guarantee from Sinosure (China) and executed by Poly Changda, a Chinese construction firm. However, funding difficulties stalled progress soon after the sod-cutting.
September 2023
By September 7, 2023, then-Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu disclosed that actual construction had yet to begin. Speaking to journalists, he said, “We got funding, unfortunately, something happened, we couldn’t continue that way, and we got it stuck there… Very soon, La will come back on stream.”
Around the same period, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey announced that the project had been incorporated into the Agenda 111 initiative, with work expected to start in November 2023.
Later in November, Agyeman-Manu informed Parliament that although the project cost had been revised from €68 million to €50 million, new funding had been identified locally to restart construction, following a cabinet directive to the Ministers of Trade, Health, and Finance.
“The Minister for Finance has now identified funds locally to continue the projects with the same civil works scope, but at a reduced price of €50 million,” he said.
January 2024
On January 18, 2024, the Ministry of Health announced via Facebook that actual construction work had commenced, following a working visit by Agyeman-Manu and officials from Poly Changda to the site. The visit marked the project’s first visible progress since its sod-cutting nearly four years earlier.
February 2024
Subsequently, during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on February 27, 2024, President Akufo-Addo confirmed that “an alternative source of funding has been secured for the reconstruction and completion of the La Hospital Project, transforming it into a fully functional modern hospital.”
He added that the contractor had received a 15% advance mobilisation payment, approximately US$7.5 million, and that the project, which commenced in January 2024, was expected to be completed within 28 months.
June 2024
Despite this renewed momentum, progress on the project remained slow. On June 14, 2024, Agyeman-Manu’s successor, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, visited the site to inspect the ongoing works, commending the contractor for steady progress but urging faster delivery to meet the completion timeline.
September 2024
At a later “Meet the Press” briefing on September 19, 2024, Dr Okoe Boye revealed that the La General Hospital was only 19% complete, while the Weija Children’s Hospital had reached 60%.
The government has completed 60% of the Weija Children’s Hospital and 19% of the La General Hospital, he said, acknowledging that the global financial crisis and debt exchange program had affected funding.
Based on official updates, however, by the end of 2024, only 19% of the project had been completed, a figure that makes Akosua Manu’s 80% completion claim inaccurate.
Verdict
The claim is therefore rated False!
NB: GhanaFact reached out to Akosua Manu via Facebook Messenger with our findings but she had yet to respond.
