Philanthropist and businessman, Alhaji Seidu Agongo, has delivered on a promise that will transform healthcare for some of Ghana’s most vulnerable.
On Tuesday, December 30, 2025, the Ghana Police Hospital inaugurated a new eight-bed facility funded by Alhaji Agongo to house “unknown” patients – people brought in without any traceable relatives, often destitute, mentally ill, or victims of road accidents.
It followed an appeal by the Ghana Police Service for public support to ease its burden and improve healthcare delivery to its constituents.
Since its establishment in 1976, the Police Hospital has carried a unique mandate: providing healthcare not only to police personnel and their families but also to suspects, convicts, and the general public.
Over time, providing healthcare for unknown individuals has become a major feature of hospital service provision.
The hospital has said that these individuals arrive in critical condition, nameless and abandoned, and the hospital bears the full cost of their treatment and rehabilitation, costing over a million cedis per year.
Many others are brought in dead as well. Every year, the hospital organises mass burials for about 1000 to 1200 unknown bodies, costing over GHC 400,000.00 annually.
Unknown patients who recover are reintegrated into their communities when identified, all at a cost to the hospital.
The facility has explained that with an estimated 30 unknown patients admitted monthly and about 10 long-term cases at any given time, the burden has grown heavier over the years.
Following the appeal, Alhaji Agongo, who had founded the erstwhile Heritage Bank, intervened by constructing an eight-bed facility for the hospital and further pledged to provide quarterly support to the hospital to undertake the mass burial initiative.
This initiative has been described as unprecedented by the police service.
The eight-bed new facility will separate severely neglected patients from the general hospital population, improving infection control and restoring dignity to those society has forgotten.
The hospital authorities described this project as historic.
Alhaji Agongo pledged to finance some of the quarterly mass burials and cover medical bills for unknown patients.
“When I learned about the plight of these unknown patients — people who come in broken, nameless, and abandoned — I said to myself we as a country needed to act,” Alhaji said. “Humanity is not about what we do for those who we know or can repay us, but for those who cannot. Indeed, nobody is unknown – we are all known by one creator, and that should unite us as a people to continue to uplift each other and make society better,” he added.
Alhaji Agongo explained that the facility was more than brick and mortar, noting that it was a sanctuary for lives that matter, even when no one claims them.
“I hope this will inspire others to look beyond themselves and support causes that restore dignity to the forgotten in our society,” he said.
Hospital officials say the intervention will ease congestion, improve care standards, and reduce the financial strain on the institution.
They also expressed the hope that the initiative would motivate other citizens and organisations to extend other support to the hospital to ease the burden and make life more comfortable for these patients and society.
For decades, the Police Hospital has shouldered the responsibility of treating unknown patients and burying unknown bodies without external support.
Alhaji’s commitment marks the first time a private citizen has stepped in to share this burden.
As the new facility opens its doors, it symbolises a rare blend of compassion and action —an enduring legacy of private philanthropy meeting public need.
For the Ghana Police Hospital and for the nameless souls it serves, December 30, 2025, will mark a new chapter of hope.
Lifting others
Agongo said his philanthropic work was never about seeking attention or expecting something in return, explaining that his motivation has always been rooted in the belief that society progresses when people support each other selflessly.
“We don’t support because we are related; we support because there is a need to make each other better,” he said, adding that his decision to do philanthropy was driven by an innate desire to make society better.
He cited several interventions as examples of this philosophy, including the establishment of Fanaka University to promote entrepreneurship and practical education, funding scholarships for underprivileged students and medical support for patients, as well as building a ward for the child emergency unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
Mr Agongo also donated medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic and provided relief to flood victims, which he described as efforts aimed at “meeting urgent needs and restoring dignity.”
