Following the declaration of two consecutive years, 2020 and 2021, as years of roads, the 2022 budget may need to do considerably more to persuade citizens that road infrastructure is being extended and improved.
Complaints and demonstrations have been persistent throughout the nation in response to the need for road infrastructure, and the administration has acknowledged the necessity for such development.
Nonetheless, the Roads Minister, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, is not thrilled with road demonstrations.
“It is unreasonable for anybody to say that all roads everywhere should be fixed simultaneously. So these demonstrations should stop. Sometimes you get people who are supposed to know better, well-educated people who should advice their colleagues joining demonstrations. Demonstrations don’t build roads,” the Roads minister, Kwasi Amoako Atta recently said.
He previously said that the government intends to build 6,000 kilometers of roads out of the country’s 11,000 kilometers.
In addition, 120 bridges will be built out of the 200 planned between 2021 and 2024.
The government set aside GHS 4.8 billion in 2021 to launch certain road construction.
In each of the three years before the inaugural ‘Year of Roads’ in 2020, the government released an average of GHS2,091,445,785.09 in budgeted funding for road investment.
In accordance with the Public Private Partnership Act, 2020 (Act 1039), the government intended to implement a novel road funding mechanism via the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund.
It is said that the restoration and upgrade of the Accra-Tema Motorway would be the model’s showpiece project in 2021.
The dualization of the Accra-Kumasi and Accra-Cape Coast-Takoradi highways would also be funded via Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreements.
Some funds have been made available for the dualization of the Accra-Kumasi highway.
In 2022, the government will seek to earn additional income to fund road construction.
It has already signaled the need to examine the country’s road tolls.
When he went before the Appointments Committee in Parliament on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, the roads minister hinted that one of the things he would do is to immediately increase road tolls marginally.
“If I am given the approval, it’s one of the things I am going to do immediately. There is going to be a proposal to increase the toll rate, and I am going to bring to this house [Parliament] for support”, Mr. Amoako-Attah suggested.
“The research that has been done in my ministry suggests that, on the average, toll rate is about a dollar. In Ghana, a dollar is close to GHS 6.00 but people pay GHS 50p as road toll,” he added, however, it is unclear how soon such a proposal will be brought before parliament.
Contractors will be looking for stronger guarantees about payment of monies owed to them as the 2022 budget is near.
The government would also consider settling contractor debts in the 2022 budget in order to avoid paying interest on the debts.
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