Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, Minister of Health
The Minister of Health Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has alleged that the recent disruption of the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS) was an act of blackmail by the vendor, intended to pressure the government into removing key clauses from a new agreement.
According to him, the new maintenance agreement between the government and the LHIMS vendor required the company to hand over data and grant the state full administrative access to the system.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Wednesday, October 29, 2025, the minister noted, however, that the vendor objected to these provisions.
“To avoid this disruption and the shutdown we are experiencing, although we didn’t have any contract with the vendor at the time we took over, we indicated to them that the Ministry was ready to sign a service maintenance agreement covering the 450 health facilities,” the sector minister said.
“Don’t forget that the software is and was not for the state, that is why it is called LHIMS. In the agreement, we indicated that before we sign such an agreement with you, you have to hand over the data to the state and you must give us administrative access to the service. The vendor insisted that those clauses must be removed from the agreement,” he added.
Akandoh further noted that the government’s refusal to remove the clauses prompted the vendor to intentionally disrupt the system.
“We cannot expunge those clauses from the agreement because it is the state that must take charge of this data. So the vendor decided to switch the system off as and when he desired, and demanded what he wanted. This has gone on for more than two months, and for the past two weeks or so, the system has been completely down. If this is not blackmail, I don’t know what it is,” he stated.
The Health Minister mentioned that the government is developing a new state-owned platform, the Ghana Healthcare Information Management System (GHIMS), which will replace LHIMS and ensure national control over medical data.
Meanwhile, the breakdown of the LHIMS system has caused widespread delays in record-keeping and patient processing, particularly in the Ashanti Region, where many hospitals have reverted to manual operations.
This comes after patients expressed frustration over prolonged waiting times and slower service delivery.
MA
All you need to know about Ghana’s new vehicle number plates | BizTech:
