‘Don’t abandon hospitals to build unneeded 24-hour markets’ – Ofosu Ntiamoah to gov't

Former Executive Director of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, Kingsley Ofosu Ntiamoah, has criticised the government’s 24-hour market programme, questioning the decision to prioritise the projects over critical infrastructure such as hospitals.

He argued that the government should first conduct proper needs assessments in districts and municipalities to determine the infrastructure most urgently required in each community.

According to him, constructing markets in areas where existing facilities are available or underutilised could divert resources from more pressing development needs.

He said healthcare infrastructure should receive greater attention, particularly in communities where hospitals initiated under the previous administration remain incomplete.

Speaking on Channel One TV’s Breakfast Daily on Thursday, September 17, Ofosu Ntiamoah described the 24-hour market programme as a failed policy and questioned its implementation.

“That project, because to abandon hospitals to go and build 24-hour market when they are not needed, it’s totally useless. Because I think that if the government had taken its time to do needs assessment of the various districts and municipalities, this policy wouldn’t have been implemented the way they are doing it,” he said.

Ofosu Ntiamoah further questioned whether building more than 200 markets should take precedence over addressing gaps in healthcare infrastructure.

He compared the market programme with the previous government’s Agenda 111 hospital project, arguing that government must carefully assess the needs of communities before deciding which infrastructure projects to undertake.

“Someone implementing 111 hospitals is ambitious, but if you are building to over 200 markets, you think that is more viable and important than people’s health. I don’t see how a government can prioritise a market to people’s health,” he said.

His comments come amid growing controversy over the implementation of the government’s 24-hour market programme, particularly concerns about the demolition of existing public and community infrastructure to make way for some of the projects.

The NPP Minority in Parliament has accused the government of imposing a uniform development model on districts without sufficient regard for their individual needs and development plans.

The Minority has called for a comprehensive review to ensure the programme is “needs-based and demand-driven”.

The government, however, maintains that the 24-hour markets are intended to strengthen local economies by providing modern trading spaces for farmers, traders and producers.