President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said no government in the history of the Fourth Republic has constructed more roads than his government.
Responding to questions in an interview on Radio Upper West, on Monday 22 August 2022, at the start of a two-day working visit to the Upper West Region, President Akufo-Addo disclosed that, the region alone has 18 road projects completed since 2017, 110 more road projects ongoing.
Whilst serving notice of the re-packaging and award of the contract for the construction of the Wa-Tumu Road, the President stated the Han-Tumu section of the road has been re-scoped and awarded to five different contractors, namely P W Ghanem Ltd, Maripoma Ltd, Mawums Construction, Ashcal Ltd, and Greenhouse Company Ltd, and will be completed in 24 months.
Again, he noted that for the first time in the nation’s history, the Wa-Hamile road has been tarred.
These projects, according to the president, are ample testaments that the Year of Roads mantra “was not just a slogan. It’s been a reality and a very successful programme.”
According to Akufo-Addo, “the road infrastructure that has been established since I became President, let me use this famous word, is unprecedented. We have never seen so much in the roads sector. Let’s put it as far as the 4th Republic is concerned. Roads Minister likes to say, since independence.”
“I just want to be a little more modest and compare apples and apples, and not apples and oranges. And I’m saying that the roads infrastructure that has taken place under Akufo-Addo’s NPP government, is without equal in this 4th Republic.”
He indicated that, “government have expanded the road network dramatically. Obviously when you’re starting from zero, when you get to four, it doesn’t look as if you’ve got very far, but from zero to four in itself is a big movement, and when you get to five or six or seven, then you realise that you’re beginning to succeed.
In the face of apparent financial difficulties confronting the nation, the President noted that “it’s been a difficult time, but as I said, we are very conscious of the difficulties in the management of the economy, and it affects areas like arrears of payments to contractors, but we are making a big effort to try and resolve these problems.”
President Akufo-Addo assured that “contractors are not going to be left high and dry. At the end of the day, if they don’t get paid, the development of our road infrastructure stalls. Things are going to work out, they are definitely going to work out”.
Whilst in Wa, President Akufo-Addo paid a courtesy call on the Overlord of the Wa Traditional Area, Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo IV, and also inspected ongoing work on the Youth Resource Centre, which is nearly completed.
