Kwame Governs Agbodza, the Minister for Roads and Highways, has revealed that the government is set to release GH₵4 billion of the GH₵21 billion road sector debt to allow contractors to return to site and resume work.
The road minister revealed that many contractors were forced to borrow money to pre-finance projects with the expectation of reimbursement, which has led to project stalling due to the absence of timely payments, rendering continued operations unsustainable.
He revealed that Ghana owes road contractors an estimated GH₵21 billion in arrears.
Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, July 8, Kwame Governs Agbodza stated, “At the time of transition, we are told that the majority of road contractors were actually off-site simply because they did some work, raised a certificate and were not paid. Some of them, as far back as 2018.
Their certificates were not honoured, and so while they borrowed money, put in the work and were not paid, it was not feasible for them to continue to work.
“At the time of transition, we are told that the amount of money owed to contractors is about GH₵21billion. So you can imagine the scale of the problem we have in terms of why contractors are not on site,” he said.
He added, “If you listened to His Excellency the President, yesterday he indicated that toward the end of this month, the Finance Minister will be taking steps to retire some of the debts owed to contractors so that they can go back to site and complete the work.
On record, we are intending to pay some GH₵4 billion towards retiring part of the GH₵21 billion from this month,” he stated.
