US, Ghana Health Pact Humiliating – President Mahama Justifies Rejection

President John Dramani Mahama has justified the government’s decision to reject a new health compact presented by the United States (US) to replace funding previously provided under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The President described the conditions in the compact as humiliating and an affront to the country’s sovereignty.

In a session dubbed “A Conversation with President John Dramani Mahama”, at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), an independent and nonpartisan American think tank in New York, last Friday, on the US Health Compact, President Mahama said Ghana, as a sovereign and democratic nation, subjected the document to due process.

The President said the Ministry of Health studied the compact and presented an Information Paper to Cabinet, where several provisions in the document were flagged.

“It states that we shall give the United States our pathogen profile. It also says we should give our medical records. I mean, who takes another country’s medical records?” the President said quizzically.

He added that the compact also required Ghana to commit a set amount of money as counterpart funding and stipulated that any medications or medical products brought into the country under the programme would not be subject to inspection by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), the agency responsible for assaying the country’s food and drug safety.

“It was humiliating,” President Mahama said, adding that for those reasons, Cabinet rejected the compact in record time. It was the compact that was thrown out in record time in our Cabinet. I’ve never seen anything thrown out as fast as that. And so, of course, we rejected it,” he stated.

The President said the Minister of Health was subsequently directed to inform the US Ambassador that Ghana would manage on its own.

“We said ‘no, we don’t want it’ and we’re doing fine,” President Mahama added.

Accra Reset
On the genesis and objectives of the Accra Reset initiative, President Mahama explained that it was triggered by the abrupt withdrawal of US aid support.

He said an amount of $174 million, which had been programmed into the national budget, was withdrawn, creating a significant gap in the education and health sectors.

The President said the health sector alone suffered a $74 million shortfall annually, affecting critical areas, including medical research, HIV and AIDS testing laboratories, the administration of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programme, and the provision of antiretroviral drugs.

President Mahama said the development compelled the government to make emergency budgetary provisions to cover the gap and reignited the conversation on Africa’s health sovereignty.

“That set the whole ball rolling and led to the whole issue of the Accra Reset,” he explained, adding that the objective was to break dependencies and achieve health sovereignty by producing more medicines and vaccines on the continent.

The President recalled the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic when Africa was the last in the queue to receive vaccines because major vaccine producers were in the West.

He said the continent must build capacity to produce its own medicines and vaccines ahead of future pandemics.

The Accra Reset, he said, aimed to improve health outcomes and ensure that health remained a central pillar of Africa’s development.

Ghana declined to proceed with a proposed bilateral health deal with the United States of America in April this year, marking a setback to President Donald Trump’s administration to overhaul foreign aid.

According to Reuters, the decision reported on April 28, 2026, came after the John Dramani Mahama-led government objected to the deal based on the conditions attached.

Other African countries expressed similar concerns about data governance in their negotiations with the United States.

Zimbabwe also raised similar issues, while a Kenyan court temporarily suspended the agreement pending the hearing of a case filed by a consumer protection group, stalling its implementation.

Meanwhile, CFR, the think tank on whose platform President Mahama was speaking, is a membership organisation focused on US foreign policy and international relations.

Founded in 1921, the CFR is a non-profit organisation headquartered in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C.

It serves as a forum for discussion, research, and analysis on global affairs, aiming to inform US engagement with the world and promote understanding of international relations and foreign policy issues.

Source: Graphic

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