Sunday, 27th July, 2025
Hon Kwabena Boateng
Ejisu
I am grateful, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, I rise today with deep concern and a firm sense of duty to give voice to the daily struggles of the good people of Ejisu who continue to endure the devastating impact of poor road infrastructure in key parts of our constituency. Mr Speaker, the Ejisu-OnweKwaso road, the Kokobra-Ekyem Akokoamong road, the EjisuAsamang road and the BesiaseJamasi road are not just roads. They are lifelines that connect our people to markets, schools, hospitals and workplaces.
Today, these lifelines are hanging by a thread. As far back as a year ago, work commenced on both the Ejisu-OnweKwaso road and the Kokobra-Achiase road. Bridges were constructed, gutters were built, and the hopes of the people were rekindled, but those hopes are dimming once again. The machines are gone and the contractor has left the road. What was started has now stalled and the people are growing weary.
Mr Speaker, what, unfortunately, has been left for the good people of Ejisu is to endure a thick smoke of dust, deep potholes and huge gulliescreated by erosion. I do not rise to lay blame; I rise to call this House to conscience, to remind ourselves that governance is a continuum and the same exists for the benefit of all, including the people of Onwe, Asieninpong, Kwaso, Kokobra, Ekyem, Akokoamong, Achiase, Asamamg, Besiase-Jamasi, among others.
Mr Speaker, the people of the Ejisu Constituency, respectfully, are not asking for luxury. They are only asking for roads that will not swallow the vehicles, paths that do not flood, and communities that are not left behind. The situation has worsened with the onset of the rainy season. These roads have become traps, endangering pregnant women, school children, traders and farmers. Vehicles get stuck, transport grinds to a halt, produce spoil and the local economy bleeds quietly.
Mr Speaker, I witnessed at first hand the frustration of my constituents during a public demonstration on Monday, 7th July, 2025, led by the Concerned Drivers’ Union of Ejisu. They presented to me and the MCE a petition outlining the unbearable toll that the deplorable roads have on their operations and livelihoods. Mr Speaker, they spoke bitterly of the soaring cost of spare parts, caused by the daily wear and tear from navigating craters other than roads. They lamented their inability to drive at safe and legal speeds, leaving them vulnerable to armed robbery and accidents, especially at night. Some are abandoning their routes altogether, further isolating the very communities we are meant to serve.
Mr Speaker, these are not exaggerations. These are realities of drivers and passengers within the Ejisu-Onwe enclave and the Kokobra-Ekyem-Achiase enclave, who wake up each day expecting their government to benefit them. While I commend the Ministry of Roads and Highways and the Ghana Highways Authority for the commencement of the construction, it is clear that mere beginnings are no longer enough. We need commitment, continuity and most importantly, completion.
Mr Speaker, I, therefore, make the following passionate appeal that the Minister for Roads and Highways and the Ministry of Road and Highways do the needful facilitations for the contractors to remobilise to the site and resume full work on the EjisuOnwe-Kwaso route and the KokobraEkyem-Achiase road. Mr Speaker, we also expect works on roads like Asamang and Akokoamon which have never seen tarred roads since independence.
Secondly, that permanent drainage systems be implemented to prevent erosion and flooding which further deteriorate these roads, especially during the rainy seasons.
Mr Speaker, the people of Ejisu are not demanding special treatment. They are calling for what is fair and just, the minimum standard of government any citizen would expect. As their representative, I will not relent until Government looks favourably upon us and we see machines back on site and our people reconnected to the opportunities they rightfully deserve.
Mr Speaker, this is not a partisan gimmick; it is a patriotic obligation. It is a call to act, not later, not eventually, but now. Let us rise to the moment and finish what was started for the good people of Ejisu. Let us prove once again for all that leadership listens and government still delivers.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity.
Hon John Darko
Suame
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity given to me to comment on the Statement ably made by my Brother, the Hon Member of Parliament for Ejisu.
Mr Speaker, in his Statement, he has pricked the conscience of this country. The fact that the roads that have been left are causing pregnant women to more or less lose their babies. The fact that the roads that have been left undone are causing school children to abandon schools. The fact that these roads have become traps for our children. The roads have become traps for our farmers and traders and causing a lot of pain to the people of Ejisu.
Mr Speaker, with respect, this problem is not only in Ejisu but my Brother had to bring this before the House to remind the Minister for Roads and Highways that Ejisu is still part of Ghana and that any allocations that will be made for road construction, the President and his team should never forget Ejisu. The importance of Ejisu to the country and especially to the Ashanti Region, cannot be said to be overemphasised.
Mr Speaker, the halting of this project tells us what has happened since the assumption of this Government. I can understand that the President just put his government together. Mr Speaker, we see that in some other areas roads are being constructed but there are equally important road connections that the President must look at and one of them is the one at Ejisu.
Mr Speaker, if we move from Ejisu, one road that I believe the President and his team should never forget is the Amasaman portion of the Kumasi-Accra Road. Anybody who has used that road in the past months will tell the ordeal travellers and users of the road go through. Mr Speaker, the past government committed a lot of money into constructing that road but since the assumption of this new Administration, that important road project has stalled and is causing travellers and people who live within that enclave a lot of pain. Another project which has also stalled and needs the attention of this House and this country is the Suame Interchange. I do not say that because I am the MP for Suame, but I say that because the delay in finishing that project is causing a lot of traffic within the Kumasi Metropolis.
Mr Speaker, the construction started well and the contractor and his workers were on site day and night working. But since 2025, we have seen the reduction of workforce on that road. We have seen that now there are just skeletal staff working on the Suame Interchange. Mr Speaker, that particular portion of our international link is so important. It leads to Burkina Faso, the Sahelian regions, and of course the northern parts of our country where the President is from. So, it is important that some of the road construction projects like Ejisu, the Accra-Kumasi Road, and the Suame Interchange are prioritised.
Mr Speaker, when the construction of these roads is delayed, what happens is that the cost of the road goes up. This country does not have a lot of money. So, why do we continue to waste money? Mr Speaker, when the roads are stalled, mobilisation and demobilisation cost go up. The ones that have already been done are destroyed, so when the contractor goes back, they will have to spend a lot of money to fix the road again thereby increasing the cost of road construction.
Mr Speaker, we see that when it comes to road construction, contractors always come to vary the cost. It is not because they enjoy it, but because governments spend so much time paying contractors to go back to site. So, by the time they go back, whatever they have done would have been destroyed and we have to spend a lot more money to fix them. We are a country of few. We cannot afford to be wasting resources like that, so I plead with Mr President and his team. Just like my Brother from Ejisu said, particular attention should be given to roads that have already been started, the roads that the contractors are on right now, and try to finish them for the people of Ghana.
Mr Speaker, I would like to again thank the maker of the Statement for presenting this for and on behalf of his people and I thank Mr Speaker for the opportunity to also make a contribution.
Mr Speaker, on that note, I yield the Floor.
Hon Nelson Kofi Djabab
Krachi East
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity to also lend my support to the Statement made by the Hon Member for Ejisu.
In his presentation of the Statement, he indicated that the roads in Ejisu have become very bad in nature. I share my concern and sympathy with him. But I go forward to also state the nature of road network in my Constituency, Krachi East Constituency.
Mr Speaker, that is not different from the roads we have in Ejisu. But I was much happy to hear that he has a lot of roads which have been stalled. In my Constituency, it might interest you to hear that I cannot even boast of even one road project that has come to stall. Sometimes, I ask myself whether my people are discriminated against or we are in a different part of Ghana.
Mr Speaker, one gets to my constituency right away from Asukawkaw through Pai-Katanga to Tokuroano and these are the major roads that one can only see. When one veers a little bit into the hinterlands, Mr Speaker, the roads have developed major holes that can be described as manholes; they are no more potholes and this is so disheartening. Farmers go to their farms, and as hardworking as they are, their farm produce remains in the bush. They cannot cut them to the market centres. Fishermen from the various villages cannot commute between their district capital and their villages because of the bad nature of roads.
Mr Speaker, it is against this background that I agree that once we have these major challenges in our road network, efforts should be made by the Minister for Roads and Highways to ensure that all areas are equitably developed, so that the people of these areas can commute between their areas of settlement and their commercial centres.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement.
Hon Tweneboa Kodua Fokuo
Manso Nkwanta
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
I know you have already read my mind. Firstly, I would congratulate my Brother for making such a brilliant Statement, which is at the heart of most of us in this Chamber. Mr Speaker, as you rightly said, our road issues are of concern to many of us here, and I am not excluded because in my Constituency, our road network and the quality of roads is a big issue.
But Mr Speaker, the issue here is that we have a lot of contractors who have done work on roads in Ghana, but they have not been paid. They have raised and submitted Interim Payment Certificates (IPCs) and are waiting for payments, but they have not been paid. So, as the Hon Member from Suame indicated, we leave these roads to deteriorate further, and when the contractors go back, we will have to spend more money to get them even to the states that they were left.
Mr Speaker, one thing that we need to learn as a nation is that, once contractors work on these roads and they raise IPCs and the IPCs are certified, they become contingent on the nation to pay. So, if we delay in paying these IPCs, what it means is that it is going to cost the nation even more, because as we delay, interest continues to accrue on these IPCs. So, we might decide that today, yes, for whatever reasons, we are not paying, but interest will continue to accrue. So, indirectly, we are causing financial loss to the states, something that could have been avoided. Interest will accrue, and the roads will further deteriorate.
So, Mr Speaker, it is not in the interest of the nation for us to delay paying contractors for whatever reason that we may have. We need to pay contractors to be able to fix the roads that have been assigned to them.
Mr Speaker, importantly, we need to acknowledge the fact that all the economic transformation programmes that this Government has talked about, without good and accessible roads to the productive centres, these programmes would never go as planned. Talk about all their great transformation programmes and all those, without accessible roads, these programmes will not see the light of day. So, it is in the interest of this nation for us to pay contractors, for us to have access to the productive sectors and for this economy to be transformed.
So, Mr Speaker, I am adding my voice to that of my Brother who made the Statement, that we need to look at this issue of roads construction coming to a halt because of certain reasons that we all know. We need to pay them, otherwise, it is going to cost this nation more and that is not in the interest of anyone. We will be causing financial loss to this state for something that we could have addressed in time.
I thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
Hon Michael Kwasi Aidoo
Oforikrom
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
I want to express my strong support for the Statement ably made by Mr Kwabena Boateng, the Hon MP for Ejisu, who happens to share boundaries with Oforikrom. Mr Speaker, the deplorable state of the roads as expressed by the Hon Member for Ejisu does not just affect Ejisu, but also has consequences on Oforikrom as well, as many residents in Oforikrom use the Ejisu-Onwe road as well to their various workplaces and even to access market centres.
Mr Speaker, quite interestingly, one key programme that could have helped most of us, and I am sure if it was still functioning properly, a lot of us would not be complaining of roads, is the District Road Improvement Programme (DRIP) project. The recall of the DRIP machines to the regional administration offices has affected all of us, Mr Speaker. As I speak to you, quite surprisingly, this morning—I did not even know my Hon Colleague was going to make this Statement—my constituents called me that some of the roads in my Constituency have become so deplorable that they cannot even move out of their neighbourhoods.
I remember clearly that before the DRIP machines were recalled, we were using these machines to address the situation. Quite unfortunately, we have to mobilise funds to support these communities. I remember that when the DRIP machines were functioning, there was also a fund that was being used for its operationalisation. So, we will urge the Minister for Roads and Highways to do well to get the DRIP machines back to the municipal and district assemblies, so that Members of Parliament can have access to them to use these machines to fix the roads that central Government has not yet budgeted for or has not yet prepared to put them in better shape or asphalt them. I believe that some of these complaints will also go down.
But until then, Mr Speaker, we also pray that the Minister also considers every Member of Parliament in the Big Push Agenda, so that when he is sharing the national cake, everybody will get their fair share and there will be a reduction in the deplorable situation of our roads that we are currently facing.
On that note, I want to thank you for the opportunity, Mr Speaker.
Hon Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh
Bosome Freho
Thank you, Mr Speaker Mr Speaker, I want to commend my very good Friend and Colleague, Lawyer Boateng of Ejisu.
Quite recently, I was watching the news and I saw some good people of Ejisu demonstrating. This was disheartening. The issues they were recounting were critical. So, I want to commend my Hon good Brother for bringing this critical issue which his constituents have brought before him to this august House. I believe it is a mark of a good leader and these and many are what the constituents expect from their Members of Parliament, which I believe that he has demonstrated that he is a good representative of the good people of Ejisu.
I will urge the good people of Ejisu to continue to support him because I know the more they do, the more he is encouraged to do some of these things. Mr Speaker, like many other Members have also mentioned, the issue about roads in this country is one that we need to spend the whole day to talk about. Governments come and governments go and each and every successive government recounts the number of kilometres of roads they have added, yet there are challenges of roads in all the constituencies.
Mr Speaker, if you would have opened the platform for everybody to recount the number of roads they have in their constituencies that are deplorable or in a very bad state, every Member of Parliament here would have something to say. Mr Speaker, I remember, one day, when we were going for a campaign, there was a community around Damascus in Bosome Freho. We could not cross because it had rained. For the whole week, students around the Damascus, Keteke, Nyamebekyere and all those areas could not move to school because it rained; it was just raining.
Mr Speaker, roads like Asiwa to Abusamso-Asamama, when it rains, in the Danso curve, it will be difficult for vehicles to even cross. From the Beposo down to the Asiwa roads, it is the same issue when it is the raining season. It becomes very dangerous and a death trap. Mr Speaker, from Morontuo down to Dompa, crossing to Duase and ending at Ankaase is another bad road. Yes, that is where the Banso and the Abrewa Waterfalls go through.
Mr Speaker, it is a serious challenge. Again, when we hit Anyanso and we want to go to Tebeso, we go through Sumdadieso and Besease and it is a very bad road. Mr Speaker, even when you get to Nsuaem and you want to go to Tebeso it is another bad road. Mr Speaker, the road from Tebeso to Subriso is another bad road.
Mr Speaker, I want to urge that Government make enough allocation—I know the Minister for Roads and Highways is doing well. I know successive Ministers for Roads and Highways have done well; they have done their best. But I am asking that Government and this House, as a matter of urgency, prioritise roads and, as a matter of fact, allocate a lot of resources towards construction of roads in this matter.
Mr Speaker, it is one reason I commended the decision by the erstwhile Akufo-Addo Administration in procuring the District Road Improvement Programme (DRIP) machines. Mr Speaker, it is one of the novelties and best initiative for me when it comes to managing and dealing with the road issues.
Mr Speaker, I will urge the new Government to make enough allocation for the management and operation of these DRIP machines in the various constituencies and districts, so that we can use them to manage the situation up until we are able to have some good bitumen on those rough surfaces, for the citizens and the constituents be better off than they were.
AskParly