This followed threats by the Minority that they would not support the agreement because the arrangement did not ensure value for money and audit and was also sole sourced. Mr Osei Owusu told the House that he was standing down the agreement to allow the committee to do more work on the arrangement.

He said the committee would also have to work on the authorization and legal requirement by the Ghana Civil Aviation to allow Zipline to use drones in the delivery of emergency health products in Ghana.

Mr Osei Owusu therefore deferred the question for the approval of the agreement for the committee to come back and brief the House on the matter before they take the next step.     Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Leader had argued that the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) had no mandate to finance the programme since it was not part of its core business.

He said members need assurance from the Ghana Civil Aviation (GCA) and other regulators on the kind of activities Zipline would be involved in the country. “Mr Speaker, we want to serve a notice on this matter that we want a head count for the records for those who voted for drones and not against the support for healthcare for the people” he said. 

Mr Iddrisu also stated that the amount of $88,000 service fee to be the charge for distribution per month was not a prudent use of the country’s resources. “If Ghana can afford this, every other month, how much do we need for a village to have CHP compound, certainly not more than $88,000 every month…. for every year we could have built a clinic or CHP compound with this money and this could improve access to maternal and infant care” he added.

He assured that the Minority would strongly oppose the agreement until the conditions that has been requested for are satisfactorily met by the government. Mr Iddrisu also stated the argument by Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, Minister of Health that the Zipline emergency health delivery programmes would be funded by corporate entities and would not be a burden on the state was not true.

He said since the GNPC was a state institution, any pledge to provide funds to cater for the project would still be a financial obligation on the Ghanaian people. Dr Kwabena Twum-Nuamah, Chairman of the Committee of Health on his part urged members to support the agreement since the country stands to gain from the drone in the healthcare delivery system.

He said the drones would not only be used for the distribution of blood products but also essential medicines, children’s vaccines and medical programme commodities for cases including Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

He explained that each distribution centre would be stocked with one hundred and forty-eight (148) different products. Dr Twum-Nuamah also stated that the use of the drone in healthcare delivery would help reduce infant mortality drastically, adding that, the fight against Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS would be affected positively.

He said another advantage of the programme was that health facilities would no longer need to procure expensive and cold chain equipment for the storage of blood and blood products and the burden of complex blood inventory management, since this would be borne by Zipline.