Afenyo-Markin demands Health Minister appears before Parliament over digital health systems shutdown

The Minority Leader of Ghana, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, is urging the Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, to appear before Parliament to address the shutdown of the country's Health Information Management Systems. Mr. Afenyo-Markin is seeking an explanation regarding the disruption of these systems, which is believed to have resulted from an unpaid cloud hosting bill exceeding $64,000.

This issue came to light during a parliamentary session, with concerns raised about the impact of the outage on health information management and reporting across Ghana.

In response to the Minority Leader's request, the Majority Leader, James Agalga, has assured the House that arrangements will be made for Mr. Akandoh to brief Parliament on the situation. Agalga emphasized that this meeting would also enable the legislature to explore the challenges at hand and devise strategies to restore the affected systems.

The shutdown of these critical systems, which occurred on October 29, 2026, was triggered by the suspension of ten servers by the technology provider Akamai due to an outstanding payment of $64,510.95, as confirmed by the Ghana Health Service.

The affected platforms include the District Health Information Management System (DHIMS2), which is vital for the collection, analysis, and reporting of health data nationwide. Other impacted systems involve planning and budget management, disease tracking for HIV and tuberculosis, and the National Malaria Data Repository. As a consequence of this shutdown, healthcare facilities have had to temporarily revert to manual record-keeping while the Ghana Health Service endeavors to restore access to these essential systems.

The Service has noted that resolving the outstanding hosting bill could allow the suspended platforms to be reinstated without the need for a complete rebuild.