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The Minister for Roads and Highways, Hon. Kwesi Amoako-Attah has revealed that a total of GH₵ 1.407 billion has been disbursed for maintenance works, activities of the beneficiary agencies and repayment of the outstanding portion of the UBA loan as at the end of 2018.

He made this revelation when he took his turn to represent the Ministry at the “Meet-The-Press” series, organized by the Ministry of Information in Accra on Tuesday.

Addressing the issue of road fund indebtedness, he said over commitment in previous years has seen commitments under the road fund balloon to over GHS 2.3 billion as at the end of 2018.

“This is a worrying phenomenon as the Fund keeps being stressed up and almost insolvent,” he said; adding that the situation was compounded by the fact that in 2015 the Road Fund opted to pay contractors owed by COCOBOD under the COCOBOD Funded Road Improvement Program (CFRIP).

Hon. Amoako-Attah said as part of measures to free up the fund from debt, the Ministry had refinance and retired the UBA loan contracted at 31% interest per annum under the previous Government with a relatively more favorable loan from GCB/FIDELITY at 21% per annum.

He disclosed that an amount of GH¢1,011,525,555.99 accrued to the Fund as at the end of 2017 with 89% of the fund’s inflowing coming from the Fuel Levy; thus, out of this, a total of GHS 720 million was disbursed for road maintenance works while GHS 891.82 was disbursed towards repayment of loans with further allocations being made for toll operations, road safety activities by the National Road Safety Commission and the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority.

The Ghana Road Fund was established by Parliament in 1997 with the aim of providing a secure source of funding for routine maintenance, periodic maintenance and rehabilitation of public roads.