Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine, has said completing stalled Agenda 111 hospital projects should take priority over spending public funds on the construction of the National Cathedral.
“Completing Agenda 111 is better than building a National Cathedral,” Dr Ayine said, arguing that resources committed to the cathedral could have been used to complete some of the hospitals under the Agenda 111 programme.
He made the remarks on Thursday, August 13, 2026, at Zuarungu in the Bolgatanga East District of the Upper East Region, during President John Dramani Mahama’s visit for the launch of the Free Primary Healthcare programme.
Dr Ayine, who is also the Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga East, was responding to what he described as a resurgence in calls by “very eminent religious people” for the construction of the National Cathedral.
Referring to a report on the project prepared by audit and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which he said was presented to him on Friday, August 7, he questioned the manner in which the project had been initiated and funded.
“The PwC report on the National Cathedral was presented to me last Friday. The monies spent on the National Cathedral from that report could have been used to complete some Agenda 111 Hospitals,” he said.
He added: “You don’t build a house of God in the manner in which they went about it.”
Dr Ayine said the government should instead focus on completing critical health infrastructure, particularly projects that could directly improve access to healthcare in underserved communities.
Zuarungu hospital included in completion programme
Dr Ayine disclosed that the unfinished Agenda 111 hospital at Zuarungu had been included among projects selected by the government for completion.
He said he had repeatedly engaged the Minister of Health over the need to complete the facility, which he described as vital to addressing healthcare challenges in the Bolgatanga East District.
“I have been on the neck of my colleague, the Health Minister, to ensure that it is completed,” he said.
According to Dr Ayine, he also pushed the Health Minister to provide the list of Agenda 111 projects earmarked for completion.
He said the Zuarungu facility appeared on the list when officials retrieved the data.
“When he asked his people, his IT people, to pull it up, there was Bolga East Zuarungu listed on it,” he said.
He expressed satisfaction with the development, saying the completion of the hospital would significantly improve healthcare delivery in the constituency.
Concerns over health facilities
The Attorney General also highlighted challenges confronting the Bolgatanga East Health Centre, particularly its limited capacity to perform emergency Caesarean sections.
He said the facility’s small theatre made it difficult to attend to multiple pregnant women requiring emergency surgery at the same time, often resulting in referrals to the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital.
“If two or three pregnant women come here and there’s a need for us to do a C-section, there’s no way we are going to be able to handle all of them,” Dr Ayine said.
He disclosed that the Health Minister had visited the facility and promised to facilitate the construction of a modern operating theatre.
Praise for Free Primary Healthcare
Dr Ayine also commended President Mahama for introducing the Free Primary Healthcare programme, describing it as an important step towards improving the welfare of Ghanaians.
He said expanding access to primary healthcare and investing in health infrastructure were essential to improving the wellbeing of citizens.
His comments come amid renewed public debate over the future of the National Cathedral, a project conceived under former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as a major religious and national landmark.
The project has faced sustained scrutiny over its financing, expenditure and progress, particularly against the backdrop of Ghana’s economic difficulties and competing demands for public investment in sectors such as healthcare, education and infrastructure.
