President John Dramani Mahama says he has never seen Cabinet throw out anything as fast as it rejected the United States health compact, after it flagged demands for Ghana’s pathogen profile and citizens’ medical records.

The President, who was speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Friday, September 25, 2026, said the Health Ministry studied the compact, which was offered to replace funding Ghana lost when USAID support ended.

The ministry then prepared a Cabinet Information Paper.

“And so the compact was brought to cabinet and we flagged several things in the compact,” he said.

The first was a provision requiring Ghana to hand over its pathogen profile, which he described as the diseases endemic in the country.

“It means that diseases that are endemic in Ghana. What are diseases endemic in Ghana? What is the pathogen profile of a country? I’m sure there are medical experts who understand that better than me,” he said.

The compact also required Ghana to hand over its medical records, a demand the President found hard to understand.

“I mean, who takes another country’s medical records? And so that was strange,” he said.

Mr Mahama said the agreement further required Ghana to put up a certain amount of money towards the programme, and barred the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) from inspecting any medicines or medical products brought into the country under it.

He described those conditions as “humiliating”, and said Cabinet dealt with the document swiftly.

“I mean, it was humiliating. And so it was the compact that was thrown out in record time in our cabinet. I’ve never seen anything thrown out as fast as that. And so, of course, we rejected it,” he said.

The Health Minister was then asked to inform the US Ambassador that Ghana did not need the compact.