Ghana has rejected a proposed bilateral health agreement with the United States after negotiations broke down over demands for access to sensitive health data.
This is according to a news report by the international news portal, Reuters.
The deal, the report noted, was part of Washington’s broader “America First Global Health Strategy,” a policy framework introduced under the Trump administration aimed at restructuring foreign aid and encouraging recipient countries to assume a larger share of funding and responsibility for disease control programmes, including HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and polio.
According to the source, the negotiations, first initiated in November 2025, would have provided about $109 million in U.S. health assistance to Ghana over five years.
However, discussions stalled after Accra objected to provisions requiring the sharing of sensitive national health data, which Ghanaian officials considered unacceptable.
“They were pretty normal dealings and negotiations in the beginning, and then increasingly there was a lot more pressure, especially at the end,” the source said, adding that Washington had set an April 24 deadline for finalising the agreement.
The breakdown in talks marks a setback for the U.S. strategy to reconfigure its global health partnerships, which also follows similar disputes elsewhere.
A comparable issue derailed negotiations with Zimbabwe earlier this year, while a Kenyan agreement was temporarily suspended by a court pending a legal challenge from a consumer protection group.
Ghana has not publicly commented on the matter. Spokespersons for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the government did not respond to requests for comment.
The U.S. State Department, meanwhile, said it does not disclose details of bilateral negotiations but reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to continued cooperation with Accra.
“We continue to look for ways to strengthen the bilateral partnership between our two countries,” a spokesperson said.
The United States has already disbursed about $219 million in foreign assistance to Ghana in 2024, including $96 million earmarked for health programmes, according to official foreign aid data. Under the proposed agreement, Ghana would have received $109 million in health funding over five years, though it remains unclear what financial commitments would have been required from Accra.
The U.S. Agency for International Development was dismantled earlier this year as part of the administration’s broader restructuring of foreign aid delivery.
As of Monday, the State Department said 32 agreements had been signed under the new global health strategy, representing $20.6 billion in funding, including $12.8 billion from the United States and $7.8 billion in co-investment from recipient countries. Washington expects additional agreements to be finalised in the coming months.
Source: Reuters.com
