Mahama has mobilized $1.7bn for Accra-Kumasi expressway – Tamakloe

By: Hubeyidatu Mumuni 

The government has mobilized $1.7 billion for the proposed Accra-Kumasi expressway, Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe has disclosed.

Speaking on TV3’s New Day, Mr. Tamakloe said the project forms part of President John Dramani Mahama’s broader infrastructure development agenda and the National Democratic Congress (NDC’s) proposed $10 billion “Big Push” initiative.

He said the government had identified significant resources that could be leveraged to finance major infrastructure projects if managed with the necessary discipline.

“We indicated that there’s so much resource in this country that all that it required is the discipline, and we’ll be able to do it,” he said.

Mr. Tamakloe said the proposed expressway would connect Accra and Kumasi and described the project as consistent with President Mahama’s record of pursuing major infrastructure developments.

“So, consistent with that, President Mahama decided that we are going to have an expressway from Kumasi to Accra, or Accra to Kumasi, whichever way you want to put it,” he stated.

“As we speak today, under the leadership of President John Dramani Mahama, we have already mobilized $1.7 billion for that project,” he added.

Mr. Tamakloe cited projects including the Kejetia Market, Ridge Hospital, the Kasoa Interchange and the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange as examples of major infrastructure projects undertaken under President Mahama.

He also defended the cost of some of those projects, recalling criticism from the then opposition leader, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, over the cost of the Ridge Hospital and Kasoa Interchange.

According to Mr. Tamakloe, then-NPP Member of Parliament for Ejisu and Ranking Member on the Roads and Highways Committee, Owusu-Agyemang, subsequently challenged claims that the Kasoa project had been inflated.

“He said, ‘Yes, you are candidate, but on this issue, it cannot be correct, because these are World Bank specifications,’” Mr Tamakloe recalled.

He said the government’s current infrastructure agenda builds on what he described as President Mahama’s established record in infrastructure development.