The Minister for Roads and Highways, Governs Kwame Agbodza has mounted pressure on contractors for a faster process on the delayed Ofankor-Nsawam highway expansion project.
The Contractor, Maripoma Enterprise Limited reportedly slow down on construction since November 2024 resulting in serious congestion and public health issues along the Accra-Kumasi route sighting mainly financial constraints.
Frustrated by the snail’s pace of work, the Minister, who doubles as MP for Adakulu during a site visit, dismissed financial constraints as an inadequate excuse and tasked the contractor to speed up works, insisting on urgent action to ease commuter woes.
“I just want to say that the correlation between when you slow down and when you put in the certificate and others we need to address it it didn’t flow exactly the way it should”, the Minister said.
“Because, like I said, I acknowledged that majority of root contractors in this country are having a crisis of not being paid because the volume of works that have been awarded without any sustainable source of funding is the issue that is the bottom line,” he added.
Citing the immense inconvenience caused by the delay in completing the project, the Mr. Agbodza underscored the importance of the Ofankor-Nsawam expansion and rehabilitation project and charged the constructor to accelerate works to achieve timely completion of project by July 2025.
“Please, that you slow down is not enough, please you have to actually increase your activity on this corridor in good faith because surely that certificate that we owe you will be paid and you are a Ghanaian contractor. You know we advocate that the Ghanaian should be prioritized in terms of road project, but if we do that and then we don’t see the effect.
“We expect you to remain steadfast with our people and continue to see more activity on site because what the public is going through on this corridor is very frustrating and we see it and we believe that you can do a bit more to reduce the frustration of our people on this corridor so before we get to the end our request is that increase your activity on this corridor we know you are working elsewhere the public feels that you are basically remade on your responsibility on this corridor in favor of another corridor I don’t necessarily believe that is the case so please to correct that impression,” the Minister stressed.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Abdul-Hanan Adam
