The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has said the Attorney-General’s advice will guide the government’s next steps in recovering value from the vendor responsible for the failed national health information system contract.
He said all legal and security matters related to the expired contract had been referred to the Attorney-General for review and further direction.
Speaking at a press briefing under the Government Accountability Series in Accra on Wednesday [Oct 29, 2025], Mr Akandoh said, “The issues of legality and security have been referred to the Attorney-General for advice and appropriate action. The Attorney-General’s advice will guide us and help us retrieve whatever we need to retrieve from the vendor.”
The contract in question involved the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS), which was intended to link public health facilities under a single digital platform. By December 2024, only 450 of the 950 targeted facilities had been connected, although the vendor had received about $77 million, representing over 70 per cent of the total contract amount.
A forensic audit later revealed hardware shortfalls estimated at no less than 18 million dollars. The vendor also refused to release system data and access rights to the government after the contract expired.
Mr Akandoh said the Ministry had since reconstructed more than 15 million patient records that were affected by the system shutdown.
He explained that the recovery was achieved using data retrieved from the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
“Because all the claims were made to the National Health Insurance, we went to the NHIA database and reconstructed the data,” he said.
“As I speak to you now, we have rebuilt not less than 14 to 15 million records, and about 71 to 72 million patient visits have been captured.”
The Minister said the reconstructed data was now secure and that safeguards had been introduced to prevent a recurrence.
Mr Akandoh added that the Ministry was learning from the experience and was working to develop a more reliable, government-controlled health information system.
“We are learning from our experiences and building on our mistakes,” he said. “We do not intend to find ourselves in this situation again.”
