President Akufo-Addo’s declaration of 2021 as the “second year of roads” already raised expectations for the development of roads infrastructure.

In his second term’s inaugural speech, the President said he will largely focus and prioritise road projects to improve infrastructure this year.

But Ghanaians can’t be faulted for feeling sceptical.

Despite the Akufo-Addo administration previously declaring 2020 as the year of roads, discontent over the state of roads was noted nationwide with multiple protests demanding rehabilitation works.

Ahead of the election, the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) conducted a pre-election survey to gauge the most pressing concerns of citizens.

According to it, 51 percent of the electorate expressed concerns with infrastructure development.

Residents of the Bimbagu South electoral area in the Bunkprugu-Nakpanduri constituency went as far as boycotting the 2020 election citing the absence of improved infrastructure like roads.

Most recently, residents of Abokobi in the Ga East Municipality demonstrated in protest of the lack of action on petitions for road rehabilitation works.

The protests did not stop the then Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta from highlighting road infrastructure achievements in the mid-year budget for 2020.

“The road sector has seen a massive injection of resources,” Mr. Ofori-Atta said.

Some of the major construction works highlighted by the government include the four-tier Pokuase Interchange under the Accra Urban Transport Project, the Tema Motorway Roundabout and 3–tier interchange, the Obetsebi-Lamptey Circle Interchange and ancillary works as well as the Kumasi Lake Roads.

The vetting of Kwaku Amoako-Attah, the Roads Minister, gave some indication of the areas observers and critics expect the budget to touch on.

These include the Sinohydro deal, maintenance or roads, the status of delayed road projects and debts owed to road contractors.

The first phase of the $2 billion Sinohydro deal for the construction of selected priority infrastructure projects catered for among others the construction of Accra Inner City roads, Kumasi and Mampong Inner City Roads, the Tamale Interchange, among others.

The Sinohydro deal is also expected to cater for the construction of the Hohoe-Jasikan-Dodo Pepesu Road on the controversial Eastern Corridor.

This Master Project Support Agreement between Sinohydro Corporation Limited and the Government of Ghana is also supposed to cover the construction of the 66-kilometre section of the Eastern Corridor Road between Hohoe to Jasikan and Dodo Pepesu.

Road contractors will be hoping for better signals from the budget than have come from the government in the past year.

The sector minister criticised local road contractors for not living up to the standards of their international counterparts because of their limited capacity.

He further urged them to consider more cooperative contract bids.

The Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry responded to this by voicing its disapproval of the comments.

Most pressing for the contractors, however, is the payment of arrears owed to them.

In the 2020 mid-year budget, the government said it would “pay its outstanding obligations to contractors and suppliers”.

But come the end of 2020, the Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry complained that about $1.8 billion was needed to settle debts owed to road contractors in the country.

“As we speak, nothing really has changed since October…the reason being that government claims it doesn’t have money,” said the Chamber’s CEO, Emmanuel Cherry.

Speaking ahead of the budget, he is hopeful that the budget will outline a roadmap to bring respite for contractors in varying sectors.

“We are also expecting that, this budget that will be read, the government will make adequate provisions that will cover our consultants and their services. It has to cover the outstanding arrears of contractors both in the roads sector and the building sector as well as in the electrical sector.”

The initial $1.8 billion is “much more”, Mr. Cherry also indicated.

“Today it is no longer the same because interest has affected the loan payments.”

In addition to financial commitments, he also expects the government to show faith in local contractors.

“No matter the capacity they talk about, the foreign expatriate’s capacity we are trying to tap into was built by their governments.”

The government has admitted to its shortcomings saying the COVID-19 pandemic played a major role in the inability of the ministry to settle outstanding payments to road contractors.

In other areas of infrastructure, the government assured of significant investment in infrastructure, especially affordable housing in 2021.

The government made a commitment to “Accelerated Infrastructure Development” where it said it will accelerate financing for infrastructure by actively leveraging innovative sources of finance.

Part of its plan was to strengthen the capacity of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund to tap into global financial markets.

This commitment can however be questioned because for the second consecutive year, in 2020, the government did not make any allocation from the Annual Budget Funding Amount to the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund.

Other key infrastructure targets expected to feature in the 2021 budget include the development of a modern railway system, which the government said was “a high priority”, the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme which seeks to promote inclusive development of all parts of the country.