Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, Ghana’s Health Minister, has disclosed that the country is targeting a 20 per cent annual reduction in maternal deaths.
According to Mintah Akandoh, the move forms part of renewed efforts to improve maternal healthcare and prevent avoidable deaths among pregnant women and mothers.
The Health Minister stressed that Ghana’s ambitious target underlines the government’s commitment to strengthening maternal health services to ensure that women have access to timely, quality and effective medical care throughout pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period.
He added that the Mahama government’s commitment to reducing maternal deaths informed the launch of the Presidential Initiative on Maternal Health Emergency Response (PRIMER).
Addressing leaders in the global health sector at the World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany, the Health Minister stated, “We recognise that financing alone will not save mothers. It takes political leadership, it takes functioning health systems, and it takes accountability for results. That is why under President John Dramani, we have launched the Presidential Initiative on Maternal Health Emergency Response. Our ambition is clear: to reduce maternal deaths by 20 per cent annually.”
The Presidential Initiative on Maternal Health Emergency Response was officially launched on September 16, 2026, by Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang.
The initiative is intended to support Ghana’s efforts to improve maternal health outcomes and strengthen the response to emergencies that threaten the lives of pregnant women and mothers.
In related news, Akosua Manu, Advisor on Gender and Social Protection to NPP flagbearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has called for a bipartisan probe into the maternal death of Theresa Boakye Dua, who died during childbirth at the Ridge Hospital.
According to Akosua Manu, in 2025 alone, 965 women in Ghana died from pregnancy-related complications, arguing that Ghana cannot continue to treat maternal deaths as unfortunate statistics.
Akosua Manu stressed that a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry must be set up to investigate maternal deaths in Ghana to understand why women are still dying and to identify where Ghana’s systems are failing to demand clear, time-bound action.
In a post on X, Akosua Manu wrote, “Theresa went to have a baby.
Her husband went to the hospital hoping to leave with his wife and baby; instead, he was met with the devastating news that his wife had died during childbirth.💔
In 2025 alone, 965 women in Ghana died from pregnancy-related complications.
965 mothers. Daughters. Wives. Sisters.
And the frightening thing is, almost all of us know someone who went to have a baby and never came home.
We cannot continue to treat maternal deaths as unfortunate statistics.
I am calling for a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry into maternal deaths in Ghana to understand WHY women are still dying, identify where our systems are failing them, and demand clear, time-bound action.
This must also become a national conversation.
Because when we pay attention, when we put the right systems in place and when we are deliberate, WE SAVE LIVES.
No woman should leave home to give life and never return.
For Theresa and for every woman whose story never made the news.
We must do better, and we can. 🙏🏽”
Her comment follows Daniel Ofori Asante, a Ghanaian man, who took to social media to accuse the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, popularly known as Ridge Hospital, of negligence in the death of his wife, Theresa Boakye Dua.
@ghnow_ Live Update: Road expansion works under the Big Push Programme are ongoing at the Tetteh Quarshie Roundabout. #GHNow #fyp ♬ original sound – NDCMUSICHQ
@ghnow_ Pillars have been mounted for the construction of a footbridge at Airport Junction on the N1 Highway.
♬ original sound – Bionation Media
