The 2027 Budget assigns two different totals to Ghana’s Big Push road programme, providing GH¢29.8 billion in one section while listing GH¢28 billion elsewhere in the same document.
Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson announced the GH¢28 billion allocation in the roads section of the statement presented to Parliament on Thursday, November 12.
However, two pages later, a separate section says GH¢29.8 billion has been set aside for the Big Push “to accelerate delivery”. The Budget does not explain the difference between the two figures.
It identifies only two projects linked to the funding: GH¢2 billion for the Ghana Market Access and Connectivity Project, and GH¢400 million to start construction of the Volivo Bridge.
As a result, about GH¢25.6 billion of the roads-section allocation has no specific project attached to it in the Budget. That represents more than nine cedis in every 10 of the GH¢28 billion allocation.
The Big Push funding is listed separately from the GH¢11.3 billion allocated to the Ministry of Roads and Highways. That ministry allocation includes GH¢7.8 billion for capital projects and GH¢3.5 billion for the Road Maintenance Trust Fund.
Government figures show that GH¢14.3 billion was spent on the Big Push during the first 10 months of 2026. That amounted to about 38% of all domestically financed capital spending, meaning the 2027 allocation is close to twice the amount spent during that period.
Major expressway funded separately
The flagship 198.7km six-lane Accra–Kumasi Expressway is not covered by the Big Push allocation outlined in the Budget.
A US$3 billion fund, drawn from petroleum revenue’s Annual Budget Funding Amount and mineral royalties, has been ring-fenced in a Bank of Ghana project account for the expressway. The engineer’s estimate puts the cost of the road at US$2.98 billion, while tenders are due to close by the end of this year.
The Budget does not state why the programme has been assigned both GH¢28 billion and GH¢29.8 billion. It also does not specify which roads will receive the unnamed GH¢25.6 billion, or how the 2027 funding will be divided between government cash, the ABFA and borrowing.
There is also no timetable for work on the Volivo Bridge, no indication of its exact location and no full estimate of the project’s cost. The GH¢400 million allocation is described only as funding to begin construction.
Roads Minister Kwame Governs Agbodza said this week that the Ashaiman–Afienya–Atimpoku and Tema–Aflao projects would be migrated to the Big Push programme.
Contractors working on those corridors will therefore be monitoring how the allocation is ultimately explained and distributed.
