Former Minister of Health, Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye, has appealed to the government to appoint a mediator through the Office of the Chief of Staff to resolve the growing conflict between the Ministry of Health and Lightwave eHealth Systems, the company behind the *Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS).
Speaking on Channel One Newsroom on *Wednesday, October 29, 2025, Dr Okoe-Boye warned that the ongoing standoff between current Health Minister *Kwabena Mintah Akandoh and the vendor could stall or even collapse Ghana’s near-complete national digital health records system.
“Looking at the posture of this Health Minister, he appears to have issues with the vendor,” Dr Okoe-Boye said, emphasising that the disagreement was threatening years of investment in the country’s health digitisation agenda.
According to Dr Okoe-Boye, the LHIMS project is close to completion, with an estimated $23 million remaining to finish the final phase. He cautioned against terminating the contract and starting a new one, arguing that such a move would waste public funds and delay access to modern healthcare data systems.
“My first recommendation is that the Chief of Staff should help get a mediator to sit with the two parties for an amicable resolution,” he said. “It is not worth throwing the whole project away to go and start all over again with a new person.”
He also criticised the Health Minister’s recent decision to launch a four-week emergency intervention to assess disruptions in hospital data systems, describing it as “unnecessary and avoidable.”
“This four-week emergency that the minister has created, saying they will go to hospitals, is not needed,” Dr Okoe-Boye argued. “If we get a mediator, tomorrow morning all the systems can be up, everything can be working, and there will be no emergency.”
The dispute over the LHIMS project has broader implications for Ghana’s digital health transformation and *public sector accountability. The system, first introduced in *2019, was designed to connect all public hospitals, clinics, and laboratories under one electronic health records network.
It aims to streamline patient management, improve data accuracy, and enhance nationwide disease surveillance. However, recent disagreements between the Ministry and the vendor have disrupted operations at several hospitals, forcing some facilities to revert temporarily to manual record-keeping.
For a country investing heavily in healthcare digitisation to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030, the dispute threatens to slow down reforms meant to improve efficiency, save costs, and reduce human error in medical reporting.
The current tension follows an earlier revelation by Health Minister *Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, who alleged that the vendor, Lightwave, had been *overpaid by more than $10.6 million under previous administrations. He claimed that the payments breached contractual provisions and referred the matter to the Attorney General for legal review.
Dr Okoe-Boye, who previously supervised aspects of the project, defended his actions, explaining that payments were made as part of an “advance certificate” arrangement in line with standard contract procedures. He insisted that the funds were meant to ensure continuous project execution and not to pre-finance uncompleted work.
The Ministry, however, maintains that it intends to transition to a new system — the Ghana Health Information Management System (GHIMS) — which it says will offer improved efficiency, better data integration, and enhanced security.
But critics, including some health policy analysts, have warned that prematurely abandoning LHIMS could result in significant financial loss, duplication of effort, and a setback for Ghana’s digital health ambitions.
The Cost of Abandoning LHIMS (Okoe-Boye)
According to project insiders, the LHIMS system currently operates in over 400 health facilities across several regions, including teaching hospitals, regional hospitals, and district health centres. It has already cost the government an estimated $77 million out of the $100 million project budget.
Replacing the system at this stage, experts caution, could require an entirely new procurement process, additional software development, and extensive staff retraining — a process that could take two to three years and cost millions of dollars more.
Dr Okoe-Boye’s call for mediation, therefore, reflects a growing sentiment among some technocrats that Ghana’s digital projects should be shielded from political disputes and handled through technical consultations and transparent audits.
The LHIMS standoff highlights recurring issues in Ghana’s public procurement and project management. From digital infrastructure to transport and energy, several state-led projects have faced similar controversies due to contract misunderstandings or leadership changes.
Policy analysts argue that establishing independent mediation and review frameworks could prevent such disputes from escalating. It would also help preserve institutional memory across government transitions, ensuring that taxpayer-funded projects are completed efficiently.
Moreover, experts have suggested that Parliament and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) intensify oversight of major ICT and health projects to avoid contract overlaps and funding irregularities.
Across Africa, health digitalisation is expanding rapidly, with countries like Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa implementing nationwide electronic health record systems. However, many of these initiatives face similar challenges — political interference, inconsistent funding, and data security risks.
Ghana’s experience with LHIMS could therefore serve as an important case study for other nations embarking on large-scale health data projects. The outcome of this dispute may determine how future governments handle the intersection of technology, governance, and accountability.
As the Ministry of Health weighs its next steps, stakeholders are calling for a pragmatic approach that prioritises Ghana’s long-term health digitisation goals over administrative disputes. Whether through mediation or legal review, the resolution of the LHIMS controversy will be a crucial test of the country’s ability to balance innovation with fiscal responsibility.
For now, Dr Okoe-Boye’s appeal for dialogue serves as a reminder that effective governance sometimes requires collaboration — even between political rivals — when national progress is at stake.
Read also: Health Minister Accuses Predecessor of Overpaying Contractor
