The National Chairman of the Ghana Road Contractors Association, John Afful Jnr, has disputed the number of new roads built across the country as stated in President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s of Nation Address (SoNA) delivered to Parliament on March 30, 2022.
“As an association, we’ve seen the government build some roads, but we don’t have numbers on the number of roads built so far,” the association’s president remarked.
“As to the amount relating to the term 10,000 kilometers being talked about,” he said on Accra100.5FM’s Ghana Yensom Morning Show. “I don’t have figures to substantiate some of these claims.”
He pointed out that the Ministry of Roads and Highways would be the best source of data to back up these assertions.
“It’s impossible for me to determine whether what the president said accurately reflects the situation of Ghana’s roads,” he said, “but I believe the Ministry should deliver some explanation as soon as possible.”
Mr. Afful speculated that the government may have included the reshaping and re-gravelling of some roads in the new roads built thus far. He was eager to point out that they are all new highways that connect villages all around the country.
“However, as things stand now, it’s as if the 10,000 kilometers were spent building asphalt roads,” he remarked.
He added that there are many different types of re-tarring, tarring, surfacing, gravelling, asphalting, re-asphalting, re-shaping, shaping, and re-gravelling in the road building industry.
He praised the government for issuing contracts to industry contractors, but expressed disappointment that many of them have yet to be paid.
