The First Lady, Lordina Dramani Mahama, has raised concern over Ghana’s high maternal mortality rate.
She described the situation as worrying and calling for stronger efforts to improve maternal healthcare across the country.
Speaking at the commissioning of the newly renovated Anyima Health Centre in the Kintampo South District of the Bono East Region on Saturday March 14, 2026, Mrs. Mahama said the facility would help reduce preventable deaths among pregnant women and infants in the area.
“Ghana’s maternal mortality rate is nearly 300 deaths per 100,000 live births, while infant mortality is about 32 deaths per 1,000 live births,” she said.
According to her, many of these deaths occur because expectant mothers have to travel long distances to access basic maternal care or because some health facilities lack essential equipment.
“Behind these numbers are mothers, daughters, sisters and precious children whose lives could be saved with timely access to quality healthcare facilities and skilled birth attendants,” she stated.
Mrs. Mahama said the renovation of the health centre was undertaken by the Lordina Foundation following advocacy by the Anyima Queenmother, Nana Saa Gyamfuaa II.
She explained that the commissioning brings to six the number of health facilities the foundation has either built or renovated across the country, including maternity and children’s wards at Bole, Nkoranza South, Bodom in Nkoranza North and Asukawkaw, as well as the renovation of the Adabraka Health Centre at Hohoe Zongo.
Mrs. Mahama said the Anyima project holds special significance because of her family ties to the area, noting that Jema-Ampoma, a nearby community, is the hometown of her late mother, Abena Gyamfua.
The renovated Anyima Health Centre will serve more than 3,000 residents in the community and neighbouring towns including Amoma, Apesika, Jema and Kranbenko.
The facility now includes an Out-Patient Department, consulting and examination rooms, delivery room, labour ward, children’s ward, male and female wards, laboratory, dispensary, adolescent centre, emergency room and offices for nurses and midwives.
It has also been equipped with modern medical equipment including hospital beds and mattresses, an electric obstetric bed, infant incubator, infant phototherapy unit, ultrasound system, digital electrocardiogram (ECG) machine, oxygen equipment and other neonatal care devices.
“These buildings the Lordina Foundation is constructing are not merely structures. They are life-savers,” Mrs. Mahama said.
She added that the President, John Dramani Mahama, will soon launch a Primary Health Care Programme aimed at providing free healthcare services at facilities such as the Anyima Health Centre.
Mrs. Mahama urged health workers to treat patients with dignity and compassion while calling on residents to take good care of the facility.
She later declared the Anyima Health Centre officially commissioned and open for healthcare services.
