The government of Ghana has announced plans to fully finance the Accra–Kumasi Expressway without borrowing, as part of a broader strategy to redirect petroleum revenues toward priority infrastructure projects.
Speaking at the Ishmael Yamson & Associates Business Roundtable on Thursday, May 28, 2026, Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson said the project is projected to cost about $4 billion, expressing confidence that it can be delivered by 2027 without resorting to external borrowing.
“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 explained that the government has revised its approach to petroleum revenue utilisation after concerns about its previous fragmented allocation across multiple expenditures.
“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 noted.
Dr. Forson said the law has now been amended to ensure that petroleum revenues are reserved strictly for 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 further revealed that Ghana generated about $500 million in oil revenue in 2025, complemented by an additional $500 million from mineral royalties, boosted by higher global gold prices.
According to him, the government has redirected mineral royalties—previously invested in Treasury bills through the Minerals Income Investment Fund—toward infrastructure financing.
Dr. Forson said the combined $1 billion is already being deployed toward the Accra–Kumasi Expressway.
He added that projections indicate an additional $1.5 billion could be generated from petroleum and mineral revenues within the year, bringing total available funding to about $2.5 billion between 2025 and 2026.
He also criticised what he described as past inefficiencies in petroleum revenue spending, including allocations to travel, conferences, and recurrent expenditure.
“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.
