The Minister of Road and Highways, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini has disclosed that government in 2014 alone spent over GHC 288 million on road construction and rehabilitation nationwide.
He pointed out that the government is willing to fix all roads networks in the country, but his Ministry is restricted due to the lack of funds.
“We want to fix all the roads, but the Ministry of Finance tells us that we are limited in our capacity to do that. So until the Ministry of Finance assures us that funds are available, we are unable to award all the roads that we have to do,” Alhaji Fuseini explained.
[contextly_sidebar id=”IfJyKtPHBmn7FPKqr1NVb6m141f6Z832″]His comments come on the back of a demonstration which was staged last Thursday by some residents of Ho in the Volta Region over the poor nature of roads in the region.
The protesters were peeved at the Mahama-led government because according to them, although the region serves as the stronghold of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), they have been sidelined in developmental projects.
They therefore threatened to vote out the NDC in the 2016 general elections if their deplorable roads are not rehabilitated.
Inusah Fuseini told Citi News that he, together with the Volta Regional Minister, Helen Ntoso and the Chief of Staff, Prosper Bani, visited the region a day after the protest to access the nature of the roads.
He however rejected claims that the visit was in response to the demonstration held by residents in the region.
“The visit was in respect of the President’s directive issued last week for the Chief of Staff to constitute a group to see the progress of work on the eastern corridor road and not to react to the demonstrations by residents.”
He insisted that they did not go to the Volta Region “in response to what they had said and the demonstration. We know we have a duty and responsibility to fix the roads in the Volta Region but to inspect the eastern corridor roads.”
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By: Patricia Conteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana