President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has re-assured the people of Ashanti Region of the government’s determination to fixing the deplorable roads in the Region.
He said all was set for the construction of the Ejisu to Kodie ring road and the four- tier Suame interchange to begin in 2022.
President Akufo-Addo indicated that the design of the project and all agreements on it were ready, hoping that by December the interchange would be completed.
According to the President, he was aware that the residents of Kumasi were not pleased with the terrible road networks in the city, and were eager to see the roads constructed, saying there were more to come as he asked the people to have faith in his government.
He discounted that road contractors were not performing and urged all to appreciate their work, “because some of them are hugely owed by the government with sums running into millions of Ghana cedis”.
The President said he had never seen before the kind of road development ongoing in the Ashanti Region, which was the biggest investment.
He was speaking on a local radio station here, yesterday, as part of his four-day working tour to inspect ongoing projects in some parts of the Ashanti Region.
The President noted some of the talks about road construction being handled by road contractors in the Ashanti Region and other parts of the country were mere exaggerations “because the contractors are working, other than that there would not be the development that we see.”
He said he would make sure all the bad roads were given a facelift to help in the movement of people and goods in the Region.
The President responded to a decision by the Assembly members of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly not to give the nod to the nominee, Sam Pyne, due to a judgment debt of GH¢50million.
Members of the Assembly had stated until the debt was settled they would not confirm the nominee.
But, the President indicated that the members should rather find out why the KMA could not pay the debt and should not make that a case.
President Akufo-Addo later attended briefly a durbar at the Neoplan Station where he gave the assurance that the company would be revived under the One- District-One Factory initiative.
That followed an appeal by the Managing Director of the Company, Malek Abi Saab, for the government to come to their aid as they lacked the financial muscle to revive it.
FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE, KUMASI