The Minister for Roads and Highways, Hon. Kwame Governs Agbodza, has outlined a comprehensive list of major road infrastructure projects under the government’s ambitious “Big Push” initiative, aimed at laying the foundation for a 24-hour economy and reducing transportation costs across the country.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series at the Jubilee House, the minister emphasised that the Big Push is not merely about building roads, but about creating an integrated national infrastructure system to transform economic productivity and improve living conditions for Ghanaians.
In his address, Hon. Agbodza explained that the Big Push programme is a strategic policy response to address decades of infrastructure neglect, particularly in regions that serve as major agricultural and economic hubs.
“The program is also intended to provide an infrastructure base needed to support a 24-hour economy by ensuring round-the-clock movement of goods and services,” he explained.
Hon. Agbodza noted that comprehensive engineering studies and cost assessments had been completed for the selected projects, and the Ministry of Finance had already issued commencement authorisations for several of them.
He dismissed suggestions that the government was rushing projects for political expediency, explaining that due diligence was being observed to ensure proper budgetary support before contracts were awarded.
“If we don’t capture the project and know where the funds are coming from, we are not going to award them. That is the basis upon which we use six months, as the finance minister said, to identify these projects, prepare them, cost them, and seek the requisite financial authorisation before we go to the site,” he clarified.
Hon. Agbodza stressed that the Big Push is not a constituency-specific programme, nor is it intended to favour selected political strongholds. “It’s the big idea to operationalise the twenty-four-hour economy and then reset the whole country,” he said, adding that road users in underserved parts of the country, such as the Upper West Region, have long suffered neglect.
“If you ever travel from Wa on the Western Corridor to Takoradi, you will wonder why we left this for this long. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the food is expensive on the farm because the farmer hardly increases the prices at the farm gate,” he said.
Key Projects Under Big the Push:
Among the projects set to begin under the Big Push are the construction of a new bridge on the Oti River at Dambai, rehabilitation and upgrading of critical roads in the Upper West, Upper East, Bono, Ahafo, Volta, Central, Ashanti, and Western Regions, and the construction of key outer ring roads in urban centres such as Kumasi, Tamale, and Sunyani.
Hon. Agbodza gave assurance that all commencement authorizations for these projects had been secured and that contractors would soon be mobilised to begin work.
“The Tamale Outer Ring Road was somehow not highlighted in the finance minister’s presentation, and people picked it up. But in fact, I’ve got commencement authorisation to cover that and, in a few days, we should be getting that contract formed and the contractor going on-site,” he said.
Hon. Agbodza also addressed long-standing logistical bottlenecks in Ghana’s road transportation network, noting that one major challenge remains the forced entry into Kumasi for northbound travel from Accra.
“You are forced to drive into Kumasi when you don’t need anything in Kumasi. What we want to do is to, just after Ejisu, do a bypass completely that goes over the road around Mampong. This will cut the congestion within Kumasi itself,” he observed.
Abandoned Projects Prioritised:
The minister further revealed that several road projects that were previously abandoned or lacked dedicated funding under the former administration had now been selected for completion under the Big Push programme.
These include the rehabilitation of Kasoa–Winneba Road, the Ofankor–Nsawam Road dualisation, the Takoradi–Agona Junction Road, and the construction of the Suame Interchange and local roads.
“We are responding to what we promised under the Big Push only,” he clarified, noting that other road projects outside the scope of the Big Push would also commence concurrently. “So don’t worry if you don’t hear Adaklu in the list,” he assured constituents. The minister reaffirmed President John Dramani Mahama’s commitment to transforming Ghana’s infrastructure landscape.
“President Mahama intends to, for the first time in the history of our country, complete the road between Wa and Bolgatanga, all tarred, within two years, and that is what we are intending to do,” Agbodza revealed, while expressing confidence that the initiative would significantly improve national connectivity, lower food prices, reduce travel times, and support the government’s overarching plan to build a resilient and inclusive 24-hour economy.”
In summary, the Big Push represents a bold infrastructural agenda that the Roads and Highways Ministry is treating not just as a political pledge, but as a strategic national development imperative.
Hon. Agbodza was clear in asserting that the scale, scope, and strategic focus of the programme are designed to reset the country’s transportation grid, linking farms to markets, and people to opportunities across every region of Ghana.
By Leo Nelson