Africa-Press – Ghana. President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday unveiled the Government’s flagship programme dubbed, the “Big Push Agenda” for heavy infrastructure development with a sod-cutting at Afienya for the construction of the Dawhyenya-Afienya-Dodowa road in the Greater Accra Region.
The project, which is being executed by OSWAL Investment Limited, is expected to be completed within 24 months.
The Big Push Agenda is a massive, focused, and accelerated public investment programme, designed by the Mahama Administration to jumpstart Ghana’s economic transformation by tackling critical infrastructure deficits in key sectors of the economy.
The core idea is that the government must make a “Big Push” of coordinated investments in several areas at once to break the cycle of underdevelopment and create a virtuous cycle of growth, jobs, and private sector investment.
The reconstruction works on the 24.8km Dawhyenya-Afienya-Dodowa road would help ease mobility, link the N2, N4, and R40 corridors, and boost trade and development along Accra’s eastern growth belt.
The project, which would be extended to Somanya, would also cover 3.0km selected town roads.
President Mahama in his address, said the sod cutting at Afienya was the first under the Big Push Programme and that they were going to cut sod in five different areas to mark the start of the whole Big Push Programme.
“And so, today, the people of Afienya, Dawhyenya and Dodowa; we are making a gesture by being the first to kick off the whole Big Push programme.”
President Mahama said the World Bank had estimated that Ghana suffers a deficit of $1.5 billion every year in infrastructure investment, especially in the road sector.
He reiterated that the idea of the Big Push Agenda was to set aside and prioritize investment into the infrastructure sector, especially in roads.
He said the programme touches all the 16 regions of the country; and that every region was going to benefit from its share of the Big Push programmes.
Touching on the criteria for choosing projects under the Big Push Programme, the President said the first priority was to take roads that connect one regional capital to another.
“We believe that it should be easy for people to travel from one capital to another capital. So, it should be easy for people to travel from Accra to the capital of the Volta region,” he said.
He noted that this year the Government had put aside almost GHC 14 billion for the execution of the Big Push Programme alone.
He added that much of that money had not been used yet because the government was still packaging and going to procure it.
The President said next year, government would add GH¢30 billion to the GH¢14 billion for the implementation of the Big Push Agenda.
He assured all contractors operating under the programme that payments would not be a problem.
Furthermore, the President assured Ghanaians that roads which were not captured under the Big Push Agenda, would be attended to under the Ghana Roads Fund.
Mr Kwame Governs Agbodza, the Minister for Roads and Highways, said President Mahama, would go down in history as the President that gave the biggest dose of intervention at a single time on Ghana’s roads.
“The Big Push is not a campaign promise, it’s a bold intervention by your government,” he said.
“And, Mr President, let no one be deceived. We shall implement Big Push and the result will be there for everybody to see.”
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