Parliament has approved the sum of GH¢5.38 billion for the activities of the Ministry of Roads and Highways for the financial year ending December 31, 2026.
Out of the allocation, GH¢4.45 billion is from the government of Ghana sources, GH¢20.23 million is from internally generated funds source and the remaining GH¢910.80 million from development partners.
The allocation will be disbursed among the three cost centres of the ministry —compensation (GH¢142.69 million), goods and services, GH¢59.19 million, and capital expenditure, GH¢5.18 billion.
Road rehabilitation/maintenance
In the 2026 financial year, the ministry intends to construct 200 kilometres (km) of trunk roads, 20 km of urban roads as well as six, five and five bridges on the trunk, feeder and urban road network respectively.
The ministry will also undertake the construction of 17,695 km, 15,000 km and 3,500km of routine maintenance activities including grading, pothole patching, shoulder maintenance and vegetation control on trunk, feeder and urban road networks respectively.
Per the report of the Committee on Roads and Transportation, the Roads and Highways Ministry would also undertake 1,750 km, 500 km, 300 km (under unconstrained conditions) of periodic maintenance activities such as spot improvement and re-gravelling, resealing, asphaltic overlay, partial reconstruction, maintenance of bridges on trunk, feeder and urban roads respectively.
The ministry will also undertake minor rehabilitation works on 1,678km of trunk roads, 500 km of feeder roads and 30 km of urban roads under unconstrained conditions.
Big Push jobs
Prior to the approval of the budget allocation, the Minister of Roads and Highways, Governs Kwame Agbodza, said the Big Push would create 480,000 jobs for high-level professionals such as civil engineers, bankers and quantity surveyors.
“Mr Speaker, if we create 500,000 jobs for civil engineers and other professionals for two years, who knows what will happen after the next two years?” he asked, saying that Big Push jobs were not just mere menial jobs.
Touching on abandoned projects which had been approved by the House, the minister said Dome-Kitase, which started under the previous administration, had been put under the Big Push agenda, with the contractor currently on site working.
Similarly, he said progress was being made on the Motorway to Central University, with contractors working on different phases of the project.
With work on Big Push starting more than eight months ago, Mr Agbodza said there were 'Big Push' contractors that had executed 30 per cent of their projects already.
With Big Push contractors currently preparing certificates for the volume of work they were doing, he said the allocation of GH¢13 billion for the Big Push might sound huge in monetary terms but the scale of the projects they were doing required lots of money.
Set up Road Fund board
The Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, accused the minister of failing to set up the Road Fund board in spite of being in office for almost a year.
He, therefore, urged Mr Agbodza to explain to the House why he had not set up the board because “you claim that is the reason why you have not paid contractors”.
“Is it a sin to invest in the private sector that Ghanaian businesses who have gone to the banks to take loans are not being paid and their workers are home?” he asked.
