Asenso-Boakye (L) and Kwame Agbodza
Former minister for Roads and Highways, Francis Asenso-Boakye, has alleged in parliament that the government’s Big Push programme on road construction has been highly skewed to favour certain regions.
He alleged further that the government has carefully designed the initiative to give priority to certain regions at the expense of the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions.
Contributing to a debate on the 2025 Mid-Year budget, he claimed to have carefully perused the list of projects presented under what the government calls the Big Push Programme.
According to the MP for Bantama, though both Greater Accra and the Ashanti Regions are densely populated regions in the country, contributing over 30% of Ghana’s total population, the government has clandestinely pushed the two regions out of the Big Push initiative.
He described the two regions as the economic heartbeat of the country, insisting that they cannot be ignored in any programme by the government meant to promote economic development.
He, therefore, termed the initiative as “just a political programme rather than an economically efficient programme”.
He posited that when the government is faced with limited resources, basic economic theory on scarce resources must be considered, and priority must be given to strategic developmental initiatives.
Responding to the claims by Asenso-Boakye, the minister for Roads and Highways, Governs Kwame Agbodza refuted the assertions that the government has deliberately taken out the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions from its radar on road development under the Big Push.
“Yes, I agree, Accra, Kumasi have the biggest volume of traffic in the country. But when you give the impression that just because that is the biggest volume [and leave out the others], what about the farmer growing yams in Yendi?” he quizzed.
“Don’t we have to take a road there to convey the yams for us to consume in Accra? So you think that just because there are more people in Accra and Kumasi, we should spend all our money in Accra and Kumasi?”. He asked.
He explained that the government’s reset agenda meant that all parts of the country must be developed equally. He asked why the NPP government did not undertake a significant road project in the Oti Region during its tenure.
He denied the allegations that the government has deliberately decided not to continue road projects started by the erstwhile NPP administration and insisted that the government intend to distribute road development across the country evenly.
NAAB/SEA
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