Wonder Madilo, a key member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) communication team, has delivered a scathing critique of the Zipline contract, intensifying the political debate surrounding the future of Ghana’s medical drone delivery service.
Madilo fully backed calls for termination by the Majority Leader in Parliament, Hon. Mahama Ayariga, labelling the agreement a “cosmetic approach” that shields deep-seated corruption and mismanagement within the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
The communication team member heavily criticized the previous NPP administration for procuring medical drones in 2018 instead of tackling the structural, long-term issues plaguing drug logistics in the country. He argued that the reliance on Zipline six years later confirms a failure by the former government to implement sustainable solutions before leaving office.
“You found this problem in 2018, you bought drones to solve it, saying that it was an emergency service. You should have made plans for the long-term services, which involve resolving the problem, creating warehouses in various places.
“You were busy chasing frivolous contracts and never solved the problem from 2018 to 2024. When you were leaving the government, six years later, you still kept on delivering medicines with drones”
Wonder Madilo, NDC Communications Team Member
Madilo’s remarks reinforced the demand for the contract to be scrapped entirely as a waste of public funds.
He was insistent that the Zipline service was merely a superficial measure designed to cover up the GHS’s inability to manage its stock and distribution network, arguing that the permanent solution requires empowering district-level health officials with dedicated infrastructure.
He proposed that every district should have a health directorate and a municipal director of health who is empowered to have their “own mini warehouse so that they can stock their drugs,” thereby making distribution to rural areas simpler and more reliable than relying on an external drone service.
The NDC communicator stated that the GHS is more than capable of handling its own logistics, reinforcing the Majority Leader’s insistence that the GHS has the capacity to procure and operate its own drones without being reliant on what is perceived as an overpriced and inefficient partnership.
Corruption and Mismanagement
Madilo escalated his criticism by introducing the element of governance failure, claiming the Zipline arrangement was compromised from its inception. He insisted that the contract was “shrouded in a lot of secrecy,” and rejected by the country upon its assumption.
He directly attributed the ongoing challenges in the health sector not just to logistics but to what he called entrenched inefficiencies and questionable dealings surrounding the contract.
“The fact is that the Zipline contract has been fraught with a lot of deals, corruption, mismanagement, and a lot of ineptitude within the Ghana Health Service, which is why they are unable to manage their stock”
Wonder Madilo, NDC Communications Team Member
Madilo argued that the problems associated with Zipline operations are a reflection of broader failures within the health sector as he pointed out that repeated shortages of essential medicines are often due to the failure to import drugs on time – suggesting a systemic breakdown in oversight and accountability that drones cannot fix.
“Do drones manufacture drugs?” he asked, rhetorically dismissing the service as irrelevant to the country’s core procurement problem.
Madilo’s position defends the NDC’s stance that the contract must be replaced with a more sustainable, transparent, and domestically controlled model to guarantee a steady supply of essential medicines to remote communities.
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