The World Bank has approved $500 million to rehabilitate and maintain rural roads across nine regions of Ghana, in what is expected to become the country’s most significant intervention in agricultural market access in years.
The financing, approved on May 28, 2026, will fund the Ghana Market Access and Connectivity Project (GMACP), to be implemented by the Ministry of Roads and Highways. The project targets the rehabilitation and maintenance of more than 1,000 kilometres of feeder roads across clusters in the Upper West, Northern, Savannah, Oti, Volta, Eastern, Ashanti, Bono and Western regions, all major production zones for staple crops including maize, rice, yam and cassava.
Poor road conditions in these areas have long suppressed farm incomes, driven up transport costs and worsened post-harvest food losses, limiting the ability of smallholder farmers to reach buyers and integrate into higher-value supply chains. The GMACP directly targets those structural constraints by improving all-season road connectivity between rural production areas and key markets.
Robert Taliercio, World Bank Division Director for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, said the project will “improve access to markets and opportunities for rural communities while strengthening Ghana’s agricultural competitiveness and resilience.” He said it will directly benefit more than 550,000 people, including approximately 350,000 farmers, 250,000 women and 310,000 youth, and is expected to generate more than 5,000 direct jobs and over 25,000 indirect jobs through civil works and road maintenance activities.
The project incorporates climate-resilient road and drainage design to ensure infrastructure can withstand increasingly volatile weather conditions over the long term. Sustainability is built into the financing model: the GMACP will help operationalise the Road Maintenance Trust Fund (RMTF) and introduce Performance-Based Contracts for road maintenance to ensure that rehabilitated roads remain functional beyond the project’s completion. Technical assistance will also strengthen the institutional capacity of the bodies responsible for managing the road network.
The World Bank approval follows President John Dramani Mahama’s announcement in March 2026, during his Resetting Ghana Tour, that the government had secured the $500 million facility. The project aligns with the government’s commitment under the 2026 budget to construct 1,000 kilometres of agricultural enclave roads to reduce food inflation and improve farmer incomes.
