Former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s Advisor on Gender and Social Protection, Akosua Manu, has questioned the reported disruption of the Zipline medical drone programme and the slow progress of Agenda 111, amid rising maternal deaths in Ghana.

Her comments follow a Ghana Health Service report that 965 women died from pregnancy-related complications in 2025.

Ms Manu says the figure should prompt the government to reconsider interventions that could improve access to emergency healthcare.

“965. That’s how many Ghanaian women died from pregnancy-related complications in 2025 alone. Mothers. Daughters. Wives. Sisters. Women who walked into our health system carrying life and never walked back out,” She said in a Facebook post.

Ms Manu said the drone programme, championed by Dr Bawumia, was designed to ensure critical supplies such as blood and emergency medicines reach health facilities quickly.

“By championing Zipline, he placed the value of human lives ahead of the narrow calculation of cost, recognising that when a mother is haemorrhaging, the most expensive intervention is the one that arrives too late.”

She also said the abandoned Agenda 111 hospitals are intended to bring healthcare facilities closer to underserved communities.

“Ghana needs a health system that is both physically accessible and technologically enabled. We need functioning hospitals in underserved communities, but we also need the technology and logistics to ensure those hospitals have the blood, medicines and other supplies required when emergencies arise.” she noted.

She added that: “If there are real problems with the cost or management of Zipline, fix them. If there are problems with Agenda 111, resolve them and complete the hospitals. If there is something better, show us and deploy it.”

Ms Manu believes that the rising maternal deaths should serve as a wake-up call for Ghana to prioritise solutions that can improve access to emergency healthcare rather than the politics surrounding it.