Gov’t goes for $2.2Bn loan

Parliament yesterday deliberated on a loan facility totaling about $758 million for some road projects in Accra and Kasoa in addition to a $1.5 billion Chinese loan to also finance projects under the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda.

Various agreements on the loans were laid before parliament yesterday and are to be considered by the Finance and Roads and Transport Committees of the House before approval.

The loans are $172.6 mil-lion Deutsche Bank S.A. facility and $160 million Construtora Queiroz Galvao S.A., Brazilian facility combined for the design and construction of the Kasoa interchange and ancillary works.

Other loans are a $170 million BNP Paribas Fortis S.A/N.V facility for additional construction works around the Kwame Nkrumah Inter-change in Accra; a $170 mil-lion Constructora Queiroz Galvao facility for the construction of a flyover on Ring Road in Accra and a $45.5 Societe Generale facility for the resurfacing of streets in Accra.

Meanwhile, some Minority Members of Parliament in the Eastern Region, particularly the MP for Ayensuano, Samuel Ayeh-Paye and MP for Nsawam/Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, have raised serious concerns saying they did not understand why the government did not give priority to a major road like the Accra-Kumasi highway portions of which are still under construction six years after the contract was awarded.

Mr. Ayeh-Paye, who is a member of the Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament, told Daily Guide that construction of the Nsawam to Apedwa Junction portion of the Accra-Kumasi highway had stalled because of government’s inability to pay contractors working on the project.

“I really do not under-stand why the government can go for all these loans again for road construction and not consider the Suhum-Nsawam road which is not only a major trunk linking the capital to the north, but also a major international road lead-ing to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger,” he complained.

He said that the government’s decision not to consider this major road a priority could be purely political because “the NDC government thinks that the people of the Eastern and the Ashanti Regions do not vote for the party.