By Yussif Ibrahim, GNA
Kumasi, Nov. 14, GNA – From the busy streets of Kumasi to the bauxite-rich enclave of Nyinahin, the 2027 Budget Statement has sketched a future in which roads, rails and renewed cultural ambition converge on the Ashanti Region.
Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, the Minister of Finance, presented the statement in Parliament on Thursday, November 12, and at the heart of the plan is the Accra-Kumasi Expressway, a project the Minister said was no longer a promise on paper but money in the bank.
The Minister reminded the House that last year, with its approval, government dedicated the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) from petroleum revenues, together with mineral royalties, solely to the Accra-Kumasi Expressway.
He said prudent economic management, disciplined savings and efficiency gains had since built up the resources to deliver the project.
He told Parliament that, as of November 11, 2026, the project account at the Bank of Ghana held US$2.2 billion and GH¢9 billion, together equivalent to about US$3 billion.
“Mr. Speaker, before actual construction of the Accra-Kumasi Expressway begins, the money is ready. We promised to secure the financing. We have done so. Promise made, promise fulfilled,” The Minister said.
According to Dr Ato Forson, detailed feasibility, engineering design, costing, and environmental and social studies have put the engineer’s construction estimate for the 198.7-kilometre, six-lane expressway at US$2.98 billion.
That is more than US$1 billion below the initial estimate of about US$4 billion, and it already covers contingencies, supervision, land acquisition and compensation.
He said tenders had been issued through international competitive tendering, with the process expected to conclude by the end of this year.
Final contract prices, he added, would be determined through that competition, and every award would require commitment control approval and a value-for-money assessment, in full compliance with procurement and public financial management laws.
The Minister also thanked the Ghana Armed Forces for the “dedication and professionalism” they brought to the expressway’s preparatory works.
Dr. Ato Forson announced that government would apply the same financing model to the Western Corridor Railway Line.
The line will run from Takoradi Harbour in the Western Region, through Nsuta and Awaso, to the Nyinahin bauxite enclave in the Ashanti Region.
He proposed that, in 2027 and 2028, petroleum revenue accruing to the budget and mineral royalties be dedicated solely to the railway’s construction.
“Just as we pledged for the Accra-Kumasi Expressway, we will not borrow to build this railway,” he said.
He said the railway would carry manganese and bauxite to a processing enclave in the Western Region for value addition, and that the Takoradi Port would be developed as Ghana’s principal maritime gateway to the Sahel.
According to the Minister, Ghana holds an estimated one billion tonnes of bauxite at Awaso and Nyinahin, and for decades the lack of adequate rail infrastructure had left much of the country’s bauxite and manganese “stranded”.
“That is hundreds of billions of dollars, sitting in our soil, waiting,” Dr Ato Forson said.
The Minister tied both projects to reforms in how natural resource revenues are managed.
He said that in 2027 government would introduce a new law on natural resource revenues, establish a Ghana Sovereign Wealth Fund and enact a Loans Act. Natural resource revenues, he said, would be directed only to major national infrastructure projects.
“Let it be placed on record that the same revenue streams that were for over a decade “spread thinly and spent on wasteful expenditures” would now finance “two monumental national investments in four years”: the Accra-Kumasi Expressway and the Western Corridor Railway Line.
He said that while Accra would anchor government’s drive as Ghana’s principal international hub for conferences and events, Kumasi would be developed as a complementary destination, drawing on its “rich cultural heritage” to host business, cultural and other major events.
To support this, he announced that the government would grant tax incentives to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to build a five-star hotel in Kumasi by 2030.
He added that the government would complete a new National Theatre in Kumasi as a cultural, performance, conference and creative-industry asset.
The Minister further announced an allocation of GH¢685 million towards the completion of Phase Two of the Kejetia Market in Kumasi.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Odeng Adade
Reporter: Yussif Ibrahim
Email: [email protected]