Ghana Agrees to Send Nurses to Columbus, Ohio
GHANA · HEALTH WORKERS
Key Facts
- —What happened Ghana signed a memorandum of understanding with the city of Columbus, Ohio, on 14 September 2026, to send Ghanaian nurses to work there.
- —Who is Columbus The municipal government of Ohio’s capital city. Mayor Andrew J. Ginther signed for the American side.
- —Who signed for Ghana Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh and Labour, Jobs and Employment Minister Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum.
- —What was agreed A framework. No number of nurses, no start date, no employers and no salary terms were announced.
- —The complication The World Health Organization lists Ghana among 55 countries where health workforce recruitment needs safeguards.
- —The other side of it Ghana’s health minister says more than 100,000 trained health professionals were unemployed in the country at the end of 2025.
Ghana has agreed to send nurses to Ohio. It is also on a World Health Organization list of countries other governments are asked not to recruit from.
Ghana and the city of Columbus, Ohio, signed a memorandum of understanding on 14 September 2026. It provides for Ghanaian nurses to work in the American city. No numbers, dates or employers were announced.
What Was Signed
The memorandum was signed at the Michael B. Coleman Government Center in Columbus.
Mayor Andrew J. Ginther signed for the city. Ghana was represented by its health minister and its labour minister.
Buckeye Africa Exchange, the workforce firm StrideHx and Columbus Sister Cities International facilitated it.
The two cities have a relationship going back to a 2015 sister-city agreement between Columbus and Greater Accra.
What Was Not Announced
No cohort size, no contract duration and no start date were given.
No participating Ohio hospital or employer was named.
The licensing pathway American states require of foreign-trained nurses was not described.
Nothing was said about salaries, accommodation or the cost of the process to the nurses themselves.
The WHO List
The World Health Organization publishes a health workforce support and safeguards list, last issued in 2023 and covering 55 countries.
A country appears on it when its health worker density falls below the global median. That median is 49 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 people. Its universal health coverage score must also fall below the threshold.
Ghana is on that list. The United Kingdom adopted it as its own red list on 23 March 2023.
The list restricts active recruitment. It is voluntary, unenforced, and it does not bar government-to-government arrangements, which is why agreements like this one are possible.
Ghana’s Other Problem
Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has said more than 100,000 trained health professionals were unemployed in Ghana at the end of 2025.
That is his ministry’s figure and has not been independently verified.
Ghana therefore has shortages and unemployment at the same time, which is a distribution and financing problem rather than a training one.
Trained nurses without posts are the pool these agreements draw from.
What Ghana Says It Is Protecting
Akandoh has said the government will restrict departures in specialties where the deficit is most severe.
He said in July 2026 that the ministry would pursue similar agreements with the United States and the United Kingdom.
The framing is managed migration: an agreed channel, with the sending government setting terms, rather than open recruitment.
Whether the safeguards hold depends on enforcement that has not yet been described.
The Jamaica Precedent
Ghana agreed in early 2026 to send 400 nurses to Jamaica, with a first group announced for June 2026.
No report has confirmed that the first group actually travelled.
That agreement is the template this one follows.
It is also the reason to read the Columbus memorandum as an intention rather than as a programme.
Why Ohio Wants Them
American hospitals have run nursing shortages since the pandemic, concentrated in acute and long-term care.
Ohio has an ageing population and a rural hospital sector under financial strain.
A city government signing a bilateral health workforce agreement is unusual. Recruitment is normally done by hospital systems and private agencies.
That is what makes the StrideHx role worth watching, since a private intermediary sits inside a public agreement.
What to Watch
Whether numbers and a timetable are published, which is when this becomes a programme.
Which Ohio employers take part.
What the nurses are charged, and by whom, for licensing and relocation.
And whether Ghana publishes the list of restricted specialties its minister has promised.
More: Africa news and analysis, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Ghana and Columbus sign?
A memorandum of understanding on 14 September 2026 to deploy Ghanaian nurses to Columbus, Ohio.
How many nurses?
No number was announced. Nor were dates, employers, contract terms or salaries.
Who is Columbus in this deal?
The municipal government of Columbus, Ohio. Mayor Andrew J. Ginther signed for the city.
Is Ghana on the WHO safeguards list?
Yes. Ghana is among 55 countries on the 2023 health workforce support and safeguards list. The list restricts active recruitment but does not bar government-to-government agreements.
Does Ghana have a nursing shortage?
Both. The health minister says more than 100,000 trained health professionals were unemployed at the end of 2025, while rural facilities remain understaffed.
Has Ghana done this before?
It agreed in 2026 to send 400 nurses to Jamaica, with a first group announced for June. No report confirms they travelled.
Sources: Ghana Ministry of Health, Ghana News Agency, MyJoyOnline, Graphic Online, World Health Organization health workforce support and safeguards list 2023.
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