By Michael Foli Jackidy, GNA
Ho (V/R), Sept. 9, GNA – Togbe Tepre Hodo IV, President of the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, has called for a fundamental rethink of how Ghana finances, delivers and maintains its transport infrastructure to make the sector a stronger engine of economic transformation.
He said Ghana’s transport system was at a crossroads and that decisions on financing, planning, construction, operation, maintenance and integration of infrastructure would determine whether the sector became a powerful driver of development or remained a major constraint on the economy.
Togbe Tepre Hodo also Paramount Chief of Anfoega made the call at the opening of the 2026 Transport Sector Review Conference in Ho on Wednesday, organised by the Ministries of Roads and Highways and Transport on the theme: “Financing and Delivery of Resilient Transport Infrastructure and Services: A Big Push for Sustainable Economic Transformation.”
He said the theme should be treated as a national challenge, requiring stakeholders to critically examine where funding would come from, whether projects could be delivered on time and within budget, and whether infrastructure could withstand climate change, flooding, extreme weather and economic shocks.
According to him, transport infrastructure should no longer be viewed merely as roads, bridges, ports, airports, railway tracks or terminals, but as an integrated system whose ultimate measure should be the economic and social value it created.
He explained that roads mattered because they connected farmers to markets, railways because they moved people and bulk commodities efficiently, ports because they linked businesses to regional and global markets, and airports because they connected people, businesses and tourism destinations to the rest of the world.
Togbe Tepre Hodo said Ghana could not resolve all its transport challenges simply by constructing more infrastructure, stressing the need to focus on the entire life cycle of assets, including construction, operation, maintenance, renewal and eventual rehabilitation.
He urged the Government to diversify sources of infrastructure financing to include domestic capital markets, pension funds, institutional investors, public-private partnerships, infrastructure funds, user charges, land-value capture, development finance, climate and carbon finance, blended finance and private concessions.
However, he cautioned that innovative financing should not become “innovative borrowing,” warning that financing arrangements must not leave Government carrying all the risks while private investors enjoyed the benefits.
Togbe Tepre Hodo also called for a stronger maintenance culture, saying Ghana must break the costly cycle of constructing roads, neglecting them, allowing them to deteriorate and eventually undertaking expensive rehabilitation.
He advocated stronger road asset management, preventive maintenance, drainage systems, axle-load control, pavement monitoring and performance-based maintenance.
On rail transport, he said Ghana should deliberately identify commodities and corridors where rail had a comparative advantage, including bulk agricultural produce, minerals, containers, petroleum products and construction materials.
He said railway lines should be connected to ports, industrial zones, production centres, inland terminals and major markets to avoid the construction of disconnected railway segments that did not function as an integrated system.
The traditional leader further urged Ghana to develop efficient port-to-hinterland logistics, inland logistics and dry-port facilities, while strengthening rail connections, freight corridors and digital cargo management to position the country as a regional logistics hub.
He also called for renewed attention to inland water transport, noting its potential for passenger movement, tourism, agriculture and freight transportation, while urging the development of feasibility studies, safety standards and commercially viable operating models.
On urban transport, Togbe Tepre Hodo said congestion had become more than an inconvenience, as it resulted in lost productivity, higher business costs, fuel wastage, air pollution and road crashes.
He therefore advocated integrated public transport systems in which buses, high-capacity public transport, walking, cycling, taxis and other legitimate modes complemented rather than competed chaotically with one another.
He said the future of urban transport could not simply be based on “more cars and more roads,” adding that cities must be designed around the mobility of people rather than merely the movement of vehicles.
Togbe Tepre Hodo also challenged transport sector leaders to become more performance-driven by measuring outcomes rather than the number of meetings held, reports produced or projects awarded.
He urged the conference to identify a limited number of priority actions, assign responsibility to specific institutions, set deadlines, identify financing sources, establish performance indicators and publish progress.
He said the success of the conference should not be measured by the quality of speeches delivered in Ho, but by the changes implemented across the country after participants returned to their respective locations.
Mr Kwame Governs Agbodza, Minister for Roads and Highways, said the conference provided an opportunity to honestly assess the performance of the transport sector and agree on reforms, investments and partnerships needed to support Ghana’s next phase of economic transformation.
He said the scale of Ghana’s transport infrastructure needs could not be addressed through traditional public financing alone, requiring improved expenditure efficiency, stronger asset management, private capital mobilisation and innovative financing mechanisms.
Mr Agbodza said the Government had placed the Big Push Infrastructure Programme at the centre of its development agenda, describing it as a US$10 billion five-year national investment programme launched in September 2025 by President John Dramani Mahama.
He said the programme was designed to accelerate the rehabilitation and upgrading of critical transport corridors, open up agricultural production areas, create employment, improve connectivity across all 16 regions and reduce the cost of doing business.
“The Big Push is therefore not simply a road construction programme. It is an economic transformation programme,” he said, adding that its success should ultimately be measured by economic opportunities created, travel time reduced, communities connected, businesses enabled and livelihoods improved.
The Minister mentioned major projects including the Suame Interchange Phase Two, Kumasi and Sunyani Outer Ring Roads, Kasoa-Winneba and Takoradi-Agona Junction corridors, as well as the Accra-Kumasi Expressway.
He also highlighted the Ghana Market Access and Connectivity Project, which he said was intended to strengthen links between productive communities and markets while improving the sustainability and efficiency of the road network.
Mr Agbodza said Government had enacted the Road Maintenance Trust Fund Act, 2025 (Act 1147) to provide an institutional foundation for more sustainable and equitable financing of road maintenance.
He said Ghana was also introducing a Multi-Lane Free Flow electronic tolling system following Parliament’s approval of a 20-year Public-Private Partnership concession in July 2026.
According to him, the system would modernise toll collection, reduce congestion and revenue leakages and generate more predictable resources for road maintenance.
Mr Joseph Bukari Nikpe, Minister for Transport, said the conference was an important platform for stakeholders to assess the sector’s performance, identify challenges and agree on priorities for the next phase of development.
He said the theme was timely because it directly supported President Mahama’s vision of improving and expanding transport infrastructure and services to drive the 24-Hour Economy Policy under the broader Resetting Ghana Agenda.
Mr Nikpe said transport played a critical role in job creation and industrialisation, noting that the state of a country’s transport and logistics system was an important reflection of its level of development.
He said President Mahama’s decision to realign the Ministry of Transport to bring aviation, railways, maritime transport, inland waterways and road transport services under a single ministerial portfolio was intended to strengthen the management of the sector as one interconnected system.
The three-day conference brought together officials of the two ministries, engineers, development partners including JICA, contractors, transport sector practitioners and other stakeholders to review sector performance, examine financing options and develop practical measures to improve transport infrastructure and services.
GNA
Edited By: Maxwell Awumah/Kenneth Odeng Adade