Lightwave eHealth Care Solutions Limited has filed a lawsuit at the Accra High Court against Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, alleging that public statements he made about the company’s work amounted to defamation and caused significant reputational and financial harm.
The writ, issued on March 25, 2026, seeks a court declaration that the minister’s remarks constituted malicious falsehood, along with damages, a public retraction, and a formal apology.
The company has since secured a High Court order permitting substituted service on the minister after lawyers informed the court that several attempts at direct personal service had been unsuccessful. Under the court’s directive, the Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim will be served by posting on the notice board of the High Court’s General Jurisdiction Registry, delivered to the Clerk of Parliament for onward transmission to the minister, and published online.
According to its statement of claim, Lightwave says it entered into contracts with Ghana’s Ministry of Health in 2016 and 2019 to provide the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS), and that the work was successfully executed and validated by relevant authorities. The company says that after its 2019 contract expired in December 2024, it continued providing services at the ministry’s request without a formal agreement and without receiving payment.
The dispute traces to comments the minister made on the floor of Parliament on October 28, 2025, and reiterated at the Presidential Accountability Series on October 29, 2025, which Lightwave described as false claims that risked misleading the public and undermining Ghana’s e-health achievements.
Lightwave disputes several specific assertions attributed to the minister, including claims that it misrepresented the number of health facilities covered, overbilled the government, and hosted Ghana’s electronic medical records outside the country. The company denied that medical records were being handled remotely from India without ministry oversight, saying all patient data remains the exclusive property of the Ministry of Health and is secured at a central repository at the ministry’s data centre in Accra.
The company also disputes the minister’s claim that it received $11 million in 2024 and delivered only a fraction of contracted services, and alleges that the public statements led to the suspension of a proposed $50 million partnership with the World Bank.
For his part, the minister has previously maintained that a forensic audit revealed a gap of approximately $18 million, stating that the contractor received $77 million of the $100 million contract sum but connected fewer than half of the planned health facilities. He also accused Lightwave of shutting down the national health data system to pressure the government into altering the terms of a proposed maintenance agreement.
The minister has denied demanding a commission from Lightwave and has referred the broader contractual issues to the Attorney-General’s Department for advice and further action.
The matter is expected to proceed at the Accra High Court. Lightwave is presumed innocent of any counter-allegations, and the minister is presumed to have acted in good faith unless the court finds otherwise. All allegations in the suit remain untested before the court.
