Manasseh Azure Awuni, an Investigative journalist, has weighed in on the revelations made about the ‘take-or-pay’ sole-sourced Zipline contract costs the government $500,000 every month.
Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, the Health Minister, speaking at the Government Accountability Series in December, detailed the cost implications of the former government Zipline contract.
He revealed, the 2018 ‘take-or-pay’ sole-sourced Zipline contract cost the government $500,000 every month.
According to the Health Minister, the government is obligated to pay Zipline more than $500,000 every month, regardless of how few medical supplies are delivered.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on December 1, 2025, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh stated, “For every month, the government is supposed to pay $88,000 per centre. So with six centres, we are paying a little over $500,000 every month”.
He added that the sole-sourced contract effectively binds the government to continuous payments.
Audit also revealed that only 12% of areas served qualify as “hard-to-reach” and only 4% of deliveries can fall under “emergency” classification, raising significant value for money concerns.
Reacting to the Health Minister Accountability Series, Manasseh Azure noted that if the Zipline money is spent on supplying drugs to hospitals, there will be no need for emergency drones.
He wrote, “If we spent the Zipline money on supplying drugs to hospitals, we wouldn’t need emergency drones to drop critical drugs”.
Also, Mahama Ayariga, the Majority Leader in parliament, has boldly declared that the former government’s contract with Zipline for the drone delivery of essential medicines was a total waste of money.
According to Mahama Ayariga, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has the capacity to procure its own drones to deliver critical drugs to communities.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament, Mahama Ayariga stated, “It’s a total waste of money. The most expensive drones don’t even go beyond twenty thousand dollars. By now, we would have had drones for every district in this country managed by the Ghana Health Service. Let’s do a total calculation on how much money we have wasted on this Zipline contract.”
“I call for a cancellation of the contract. The contract should be cancelled. The Ghana Health Service should develop its own in-house capacity to deliver the blood through its own drones,” he added.
His remarks come on the back of Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the minority leader, calling on the Leader of Government Business to summon the Health Minister to parliament to update the house on Zipline operations following three centres being shut down due to the government’s GH₵175 million unpaid debt.
Meanwhile, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, the former Minister of Health, has warned the John Mahama-led government against the cancellation of the Zipline drone delivery system.
The former Minister of Health cautioned political actors against attempts to ridicule and undermine the Zipline.
According to Okoe Boye, politicising Zipline can endanger the lives of remote communities that depend on emergency medical deliveries.
The former Health Minister defended the Zipline drone delivery as one of the fastest lifelines for health facilities that lack critical medical supplies.
It will be recalled, the former Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, on Wednesday, April 24, 2019, launched the drones-for-medical-supplies initiative at Zipline’s first distribution centre at Omenako in the Eastern Region.
The $12.5 million contract was to enable the Ghana Health Service to fly blood and other essential medical supplies to deprived and hard-to-reach areas.
See the post below:
If we spent the Zipline money on supplying drugs to hospitals, we wouldn't need emergency drones to drop critical drugs.
— Manasseh Azure Awuni (@Manasseh_Azure) December 1, 2025