President John Mahama is expected to tour several ongoing road projects in the Greater Accra Region today as part of his Big Push agenda, an initiative he believes will transform Ghana’s road network within two years.
The President’s planned inspection follows a series of project launches across the country. Over the past three months, he has cut sod for major road works in the Greater Accra, Volta and Upper West Regions, all under the Big Push programme aimed at accelerating infrastructure development.
President Mahama has repeatedly stated that the scale and structure of the plan will deliver major improvements quickly. He has said he is confident that “Ghana will, in the next two years, have the best roads in West Africa” thanks to the initiative.
Explaining how the projects have been designed to ensure fast delivery, the President said the contracts were structured to avoid long delays.
“The Big Push projects have been allocated in such a way that no contractor will take 24 months to complete. Because we haven’t given any contractor too long a stretch that will take him too much time. We’ve broken it up into pieces so that every contractor can work quickly, and then they join their portions together.”
President Mahama also appealed to the public for patience as construction intensifies nationwide. “Let me apologise to Ghanaians, from the launch of this Big Push here, the whole of Ghana is going to become a construction site. So bear with the contractors, but know that we are suffering to gain.”
He noted that monitoring will be strict and continuous to ensure contractors deliver on schedule. “We’re going to keep monitoring the progress of all the projects. So they will visit the projects regularly from time to time at every stage to see the status of the projects. They will take pictures, they will take videos.”
The President added he will personally track the work from his office. “I’ll be sitting in my office, and I can see what First Sky is doing on the Ho–Aflao road. I can see what Oswal is doing on the Afienya–Dodowa road.
“Every contractor working on every road in this country. I’ll sit in Accra at the Flagstaff House, and I’ll see the work they are doing,” he said.