GHANA GOVT TO RELEASE US $1BILLION TO SETTLE OUTSTANDING ROAD DEBTS

The Minister of Roads and
Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Attah, has said plans are far advanced for the Ministry
of Finance to release US $1billion for the ministry to pay outstanding road
debts and construct new roads.

According to Amoako-Attah, the
ministry has decided to collaborate with the Ghana Cocoa Board to fund all
cocoa roads and pay all outstanding road debts which government, for the past
three years, has spent GH¢4billion on.

The move, he said, was
government’s commitment to improving the road networks in the country which has
remained around 39% in good condition, 32% fair condition and 29% in poor
condition over the last five years.

The minister was addressing
participants at a management workshop under the theme, ‘Ghana Beyond Aid:
Strategies for sustainable investment and road asset preservation,’ in Kumasi.

Amoako-Attah said because funding
sources for road projects was limited, the ministry since 2017 had been
embarking on a comprehensive project portfolio review to ensure that projects were
rationalised and adequately funded.

He noted that, since toll booths
fetched the ministry a lucrative income, the ministry would embark on a rehabilitation
maintenance management project.

He indicated that, as government
recognised the importance of good road infrastructure as a critical facilitator
for rapid socio-economic development of the country, his administration would
not deal lightly with saboteurs of road policies within and outside the
ministry.

The Senior Minister, Yaw
Osafo-Maafo said one of the key growth poles in the government’s socio-economic
development growth agenda was the need for the country to undertake massive,
urgent and comprehensive infrastructure development to expand and transform the
economy.

Osafo-Maafo indicated that the
current stagnated road condition was a wake-up call to the ministry since
various reasons have been attributed to the situation which included
overdependence on scarce public funds, delays in payments, weak contractor
capacity supervision among others.

He acknowledged that, it was necessary to develop creative and innovative solutions to complement government’s efforts in sourcing for funds to construct additional roads especially in the six newly created regions.

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