The government of Ghana has announced plans to finance the Accra–Kumasi Expressway without borrowing, as part of a new strategy to channel petroleum revenues into priority infrastructure projects.
Speaking at the Ishmael Yamson & Associates Business Roundtable on Thursday, May 28, Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson disclosed that the Accra–Kumasi Expressway is expected to cost about $4 billion, but expressed confidence that the project could be fully financed without resorting to borrowing by 2027.
“Granted, the Accra-Kumasi Expressway is going to cost us $4 billion. We’ll fund it without borrowing. 2025, 2026, 2027, we’ll be able to have $4 billion to link Accra to Kumasi,” he said.
He said the government had revised its approach to the use of oil revenues following concerns over how such funds were previously utilised.
According to him, petroleum revenues in the past were spread across several expenditures, limiting their impact on national development.
“Some of the things we’ve done is, for example, in the past, the oil revenue accrued to the budget was shared so thin,” he said.
Dr. Forson indicated that the government has amended the law to ensure petroleum revenues are dedicated solely to infrastructure development.
“We’ve said that use Ghana’s oil revenue only for infrastructure use. And it’s the responsibility of the government of the day that, at least for the next four years, you need to earmark all this oil revenue for one major infrastructure and name it as such,” he stated.
He explained that Ghana generated about $500 million in oil revenue in 2025, which was complemented by another $500 million from mineral royalties following rising gold prices.
According to him, the government redirected mineral royalties that previously went to the Minerals Income Investment Fund for treasury bill investments into infrastructure financing.
Dr. Forson said the combined $1 billion is being used to finance the Accra–Kumasi Expressway project.
He added that government projections show Ghana could generate an additional $1.5 billion in petroleum and mineral revenues this year, bringing total available funds for the project to $2.5 billion between 2025 and 2026.
Dr. Forson also criticised what he described as imprudent spending of petroleum revenues in the past, including expenditures on travel, conferences and other recurrent items.
“All of that, we’ve stopped it. And we are targeting major infrastructure. After 2027, we’ll target another project. And gradually, we’ll build the country going into the future,” he added.
