Lightwave E-Healthcare Solutions Limited has issued a forceful rebuttal to allegations made by Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh regarding management of Ghana’s National E-Healthcare Programme, escalating a public dispute over the troubled digital health infrastructure that serves hundreds of facilities nationwide.
In a detailed statement released on Thursday, October 30, 2025, the company accused the minister of making “false and misleading” claims that distort facts and risk undermining Ghana’s electronic health digitization progress. The statement directly challenged assertions the minister made in Parliament on October 28 and repeated at the Presidential Accountability Series.
Responding to the minister’s assertion that Ghanaian electronic medical records were being handled remotely from India without Ministry oversight, Lightwave insisted the claim was entirely baseless and stated that all patient data generated through the programme remains the exclusive property of the Ministry of Health and is secured within a central repository at the Ministry’s data centre in Accra.
“No data is stored in India or any foreign jurisdiction,” the company stated emphatically. Lightwave clarified that while the ministry owns the health data, the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS) software is the company’s intellectual property, licensed to the government under a formal contract.
The dispute centers on a 100 million dollar contract signed in March 2019 to digitize 950 health facilities across Ghana. Both parties agree that Lightwave has received approximately 76.99 million dollars so far, with 23 million dollars still outstanding from the original contract sum, and that more than 450 health facilities have been digitized under the project.
The company dismissed the minister’s claim that it had received 77 percent of the contract sum while completing less than half of the project, arguing that the Minister’s figures overlooked the differentiated cost structure across the 950 health facilities. Lightwave explained that deployment in just four teaching hospitals accounted for 21 percent of the total contract value due to their size and complexity.
By the contract’s expiration on December 31, 2024, the company said it had completed installations in all teaching and regional hospitals and 243 district hospitals, representing about 72 percent of the total project value.
The company attributed project delays to bureaucratic approval processes, late government payments and COVID 19 disruptions. “The Ministry was required to pay within 36 days of invoicing but in practice took an average of 10 months,” the statement revealed, adding that these delays created severe financial strain on the project.
At a Public Accounts Committee hearing on Thursday, October 30, Minister Akandoh accused his predecessor, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, of approving an overpayment to Lightwave, citing an unutilized advance of 10.6 million dollars yet to be expended by the vendor. The current minister argued that paying contractors before they deliver work amounts to overpayment.
Dr Okoe Boye, in a statement issued the same morning titled “The LHIMS Controversy: A Case of Giving the Dog a Bad Name to Hang It”, described the same 10.6 million dollars as an unutilized advance rather than an overpayment. He defended the payments, noting the state has not paid the full contract amount and questioning the fairness of criticizing incomplete work when 23 million dollars remains unpaid.
The two ministers disagree sharply on the extent of work completed. Minister Akandoh told the committee that only seven out of 157 facilities under the third milestone had been verified despite an 11 million dollar payment, while Dr Okoe Boye stated that 461 facilities were covered, including four teaching hospitals, six regional hospitals and 243 district and municipal hospitals.
Minister Akandoh disclosed that irregularities identified in the LHIMS contract have been referred to the Attorney General for advice and further action, and alleged that the recent system disruption was an act of blackmail by the vendor intended to pressure the government into removing key clauses from a new maintenance agreement.
According to the minister, the proposed maintenance agreement required the company to hand over data and grant the state full administrative access to the system, but the vendor objected to these provisions and allegedly switched the system off when the government refused to remove the clauses.
Lightwave rejected these characterizations and disclosed that the ministry still owes the company for eight months of post contract work, contradicting the minister’s claim that all payments were settled. The company emphasized it has continued operating the system despite the expired contract and outstanding payments.
On equipment delivery disputes, Lightwave clarified that the contractual quantity for laptops was 9,544 units, not 13,172 as suggested, and that deliveries corresponded to facilities where deployments were completed. The company rejected suggestions that it supplied substandard or insufficient equipment, insisting all items met contractual standards and were subject to inspection and warranty verification.
Lightwave reaffirmed that over 200 facilities remain actively using LHIMS, including Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital and Eastern Regional Hospital, and stated the system has operated efficiently for nearly nine years.
The minister revealed that the government has procured a new platform, the Ghana Healthcare Information Management System (GHIMS), to replace the malfunctioning LHIMS and ensure national control over medical data. However, Dr Okoe Boye warned that abandoning a system after investing over 73 million dollars and training more than 150,000 health workers would amount to “gross financial waste”.
Eric Agyei, Project Manager for LHIMS, admitted that disruptions to hospitals’ digital records were mainly due to administrative delays and the government’s failure to renew its contract which expired in 2024, stating the company wrote for an extension which didn’t materialize.
Independent sources previously reported that Lightwave has kept Ghana’s digital health system running for nine months without payment from the Ministry and that the LHIMS platform has digitized more than 26 million patient encounters. In one instance, the company reportedly replaced fire damaged hardware at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital data centre without reimbursement.
Minister Akandoh noted that the Lightwave contract was never submitted to Parliament for approval, stating “It was never a contract considered by Parliament” and claiming the vendor’s conduct made renegotiation efforts impossible.
The controversy raises fundamental questions about contract management, procurement procedures, data sovereignty and the future of Ghana’s digital health records system. The dispute has paralyzed services at numerous facilities and forced the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to introduce a temporary Claims Check Code platform to prevent total service collapse.
Lightwave urged stakeholders to end what it described as “uninformed commentary” and instead focus on resolving the impasse to safeguard Ghana’s digital healthcare infrastructure. “We remain ready to work with the Ministry to complete the remaining installations and ensure continuity of care for Ghanaians,” the company stated.
The standoff has divided health sector stakeholders, with some questioning whether the government’s approach risks destroying functional infrastructure while others support stronger state control over critical health data systems. The involvement of the Attorney General and Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) suggests potential legal proceedings ahead.
