Parliament has approved a €135 million facility to finance the design and construction of Phase 1 of the Suame Interchange and ancillary road projects in Suame in the Ashanti Region.
The agreement is between the Government of Ghana (GoG) and Deutsche Bank S.A.E. for an amount of €135,396,518.38.
The House also approved a commercial facility agreement between the GoG and the Deutche Bank S.A.E. for an amount of €21 million for the same project. The project is to convert the Suame roundabout into a four-tier interchange to ensure the free flow of traffic within the area and help reduce travelling time
When the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, leading the House yesterday asked for a vote on the matter, he had the House agreeing to the deal.
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who is also Member of Parliament of the area, was recently booed by some angry residents over the poor state of roads in the area.
Speaking on the floor of the House yesterday, the Majority Leader described the traffic situation in the area as “horrible” due to the poor nature of the Suame interchange roads.
Caution
He, however, warned that the construction will cause a dustier atmosphere and that residents must bear with the contractor and government over the situation.
“I am hoping that the people of Suame and, indeed, Kumasi, when it comes to be constructed will not use the situation that they complained about, especially the creation of dust, to jeopardise the construction of the project…I am just saying that we should anticipate this so that nobody feeds on it and creates unnecessary problems for the contractor,” he stated.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, who led his side to support the loan agreement, recounted that he had used the road previously and “its poor state must be fixed immediately”.
“We support this motion Mr. Speaker. Why this road is important is that I sometimes use it when I want to cut off from Kumasi-through-Techiman on the way to my village…I am afraid that the money may not be adequate enough knowing what goes into construction these days,” he stated.
He added: “Prices have escalated, contractors, how much they bought iron rods, how much they bought cement; if this was the basis of their computation, they may come in for additional resources. I support the motion and urge colleagues to vote massively for it”.
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