The North Can Only Be Rich If Major Roads Are Tarred

Residents of Yendi-Bimbilla demonstrate for construction of their road

The three regions of the North – Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions, for many people, would continue to remain poorer or the poorest in Ghana if major road networks linking the various districts to the regional capitals which are in deplorable states, are not tarred or asphalted. 

In the Northern Region for instance, about 90% of the roads are not tarred apart from the Tamale-Yendi road. The other tarred roads including Tamale-Buipe, Tamale-Savelugu and Savelugu-Walewale were accidentally constructed because they are located on the Kumasi-Bolgatanga trunk roads.

Out of the 25 districts (including the newly created ones), only four (4) are linked with the regional capital, Tamale. 

The situation has compounded the poverty situation of the people, most of who (about 90%) are farmers and found it difficult to transport their farm produce to the markets in the city. In fact, this has over the years also contributed to the dwindling efforts or achievements of the North which sometime past, was regarded as the bread basket of the nation.

The nature of the roads compelled most farmers to keep their produce on the farms, which sometimes got consumed by fire, through the negligence of alien herdsmen.

However, at a public forum on the Road Fund in Tamale recently, most participants called on the Ministry of Roads and High Ways to endeavour to tar major road networks linking the various districts to the regional capitals in order to lift residents out of extreme poverty.

The participants stated, that a greater percentage of the population in the rural areas were farmers, and could be better off if they had improved access roads to their farms to enable them cart their farm produce to the city centres for sale.

The public forum on the Road Fund, organised by the Ministry of Roads and High Ways under the theme: “Financing Road Maintenance”, was intended to sensitise the public and all stakeholders on the role of the Road Fund in the financing of road maintenance in the country. It also provided the platform for explaining the rationale for the collection of road tolls and other levies into the Fund and also the challenges confronting the Ghana Road Fund Secretariat.

Engineers say, it is increasingly recognised that road users must have to directly or indirectly contribute to the cost of maintaining roads in the country, because it is a shared a responsibility between the government who constructs and the road user who benefits from the access thus created.

Against this imperative need to address the shortfall in the financing gap in the country’s road maintenance programme, the Road Fund Act, Act 536 was passed by Parliament in 1997 to establish the Road Fund Board. Revenue accruals into the Fund are exclusively dedicated to routine and periodic maintenance of the country’s road network. The Act specifies the derivation of these funds from levy on fuel, fees from registration of vehicles, road user fees, road tolls, bridge tolls, ferry tolls and international transit fees.

Mr. Joe Gidisu, Min. Roads/High Ways

The Minister of Roads and High Ways, Joe Gidisu, said the projected total revenue for 2012 was GH¢230 million, adding that, the revenue accruing to the Road Fund had consistently increased from GH¢182 million in 2010 to GH¢209.4 million in 2011.

He disclosed that, in spite of the above financial achievements, the Fund carried forward an indebtedness of GH¢180.5 million from 2011 to 2012 increasing the previous year’s indebtedness by GH¢106 million. “Since the capacity of the Fund can sustain only 60% of our road maintenance needs, the implication of this 40% financing gap on our road maintenance works should be obvious to all of us assembled here, especially our road contractors whose payment certificate for works done are from this source and also our Assemblies who roads maintenance requirements continue to increase”, the minister noted.

Mr. Gidisu hinted that, government had been studying some recommendations that had been made by the ministry to make the Fund responsive to road maintenance needs. Adding that, government had also been exploring other financial methods such as the long term pre-financing to carryout road maintenance. “Another area of funding which government has been giving serious consideration to, is the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) and the Maintain, Operate and Transfer (MOT) concepts of Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements”.

According to the Minister of Roads and High Ways, a national road network of about 39,000 kilometres as at 2011 was now over 67,000 kilometres, saying the road condition mix had improved from 27% good, 17% fair and 56% bad as at 2001 to 42% good, 28% fair and 30% bad as at the end of 2010. 

Meanwhile, Engineer F.D Ahlidza of the Ministry of Roads and High Ways noted that, maintaining a paved road for fifteen years costs about $60,000 per kilometre, and if a road is not maintained and allowed to deteriorate over time, it will cost about $200,000 per kilometre to rehabilitate it. 

Besides, he said if gravel roads are maintained for ten years it costs between $10,000 and $20,000 per kilometre depending on traffic volumes and climate, but if they are not maintained for ten years, the cost of rehabilitation is about $40,000 per kilometre. “Research indicates that every $1 of under-expenditure in maintaining roads to an optimum condition costs vehicle operators an additional $3”he disclosed. 

Engineer Ahlidza emphasised that Ghana desired that the condition mix of the road network be as 50% Good, 30% Fair and 20% Poor. To attain this mix, he said the total network must receive 100% routine maintenance and a good balance of the periodic maintenance and rehabilitation.  

He attributed inadequate funding leading to deferment of road maintenance programmes; Low delivery capacity of the local construction industry, thereby affecting the early completion of road projects; conversion of a large number of vehicles from the use of petrol to Liquefied Petroleum Gas on which no levy is charged; Inadequate logistics for project supervision and Delays in honouring contractors’ payment certificates, as some of the challenges causing the deterioration of the country’s road networks.

 

Engineer Ahlidza thus, called on road users to pay realistic road user charges to ensure continuous and sustainable flow of funds into the Ghana Road Fund for road maintenance.