Ellembelle: Shaip Africa Foundation Rejects 20-Bed Health Facility Funded By Ghana Gas Company

The executives of Shaip Africa Foundation are up in arms with Ghana Gas Company and Quantum Terminal, accusing them of what they describe as unfair and selective treatment.

The group has rejected the construction of a 20-bed health center at Aiyinase, initiated by Ghana Gas Company and Quantum Terminal.

According to the CEO of the group, Dr. Clement Clinton Blay, Nzemalands deserves the best and not the worst, with all the potential adverse effects on the Nzemas due to the extraction of oil and gas at Atuabo.

Ghana Gas Company and Quantum Terminal, as part of their cooperative social responsibilities, cut sod for the construction of a $2.86 million 20-bed health facility for the Aiyinase community in the Western region.

A similar project funded by Ghana Gas is to commence at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) with a 200-bed health facility.

For these reasons, the Chief Executive Officer of the Shaip Africa Foundation, Dr. Clement Clinton Blay, found it cheating and discriminatory when the Ghana Gas Company cut sod to support a 200-bed hospital at the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Sunyani.

He said the good people of Aiyinase, if nothing at all, ought to have been rewarded with the 200-bed health facility to merit a fair share of the proceeds from the oil and gas situated on their lands.

This is because Dr. Blay reveals to journalists that the 2022 population statistics of the Aiyinasi community currently stand at about 11,000, considering over 30 surrounding communities use the facility as a referral center, adding up to over 50,000 beneficiaries as far as health issues in Aiyinase are concerned.

Dr. Blay said it’s unfair for UENR, which has a population of less than 11,000, to benefit from a 200-bed facility while that of the people of Aiyinase is earmarked for 20 beds to serve as a referral center.

He said, looking at the statistics, that the proposed 20-bed health center for the people of Aiyinase won’t be enough to ease the pressure on the only district hospital at Ekwei; thus, patients will still travel far to access certain secondary health care.

He said Nzema is known to be the leading oil and gas-producing community in Ghana, but unfortunately, infrastructural development has eluded them for many years.

The chief executive officer mentioned the lack of adequate school infrastructure, bad roads, and environmental issues such as air pollution and other infrastructural facilities as some of the major challenges confronting the people of Aiyinase and the entire Nzemaland.

The group is therefore calling on Ghana Gas Company and Quantum Terminal to increase the number of health facilities to avoid treating them with the outmost disrespect because the two companies are making elephantine profits on their lands.

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