Mahama Launches Committee to Oversee Transfer of UGMC to University of Ghana

Accra, Ghana - 9 July, 2025 - Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama has launched a significant step towards transforming the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC) into a world-class teaching hospital by inaugurating a nine-member transitional management committee to oversee its transfer from the Ministry of Health to the University of Ghana.

The move, announced on 8 July 2025 in Accra, fulfills a key campaign promise from Mahama’s 2024 election bid and aims to integrate clinical services, teaching, and research under the university’s governance to enhance healthcare delivery and medical education across Ghana and West Africa.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, President Mahama emphasized that the handover is more than an administrative shift, describing it as a strategic alignment to foster synergy between healthcare, education, and research. 

“The next phase of our vision calls for the full integration of UGMC into the University of Ghana’s governance and operational structures. This is not a mere administrative action. It is a strategic alignment designed to promote synergy between clinical service delivery, teaching and research, to enhance institutional efficiency through harmonised leadership and resource management, to encourage inter-disciplinary collaboration between medical professionals, researchers and academics, and most importantly, to create a truly world-class teaching hospital that serves the needs of Ghana and the wider West African sub-region,” the President said.

''To guide this transition process, I have a constitutional management committee co-chaired by two distinguished Ghanaians,'' he added.

The committee, co-chaired by Professor Aaron Lawson, a former provost of the University of Ghana’s College of Health Sciences, and Professor Mutawakilu Iddrisu, a neurological specialist from Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is tasked with ensuring a seamless transition.

The UGMC, a state-of-the-art facility commissioned in 2017 under Mahama’s first presidency, has been managed by the Ghana Health Service since its second phase opened in 2021. Costing $217 million, funded by a loan from HSBC and Israel’s Export Credit Agency, the centre boasts 650 beds, advanced diagnostic units, and specialized services like cardiology and neurosurgery, serving over 3,000 patients monthly, per its official website.