The Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, has blamed the government for the poor nature of roads in the country.
Alhaji Fuseini, a former Roads and Highways Minister said the decision by government to freeze all road projects when it took over the reins of power in January 2017 was the cause of the bad nature of roads in the country.
The state of roads in the country have received national attention in recent weeks including that of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo when he delivered the State-of-The-Nation address in Parliament on February 8, 2018.
“There is a crying need for work to be done on all our roads. The Western Corridor, the Central Corridor, trunk roads, feeder roads, town roads, around the country, all require urgent attention.
“We are determined to bring our road network to a befitting status, and this year we shall witness much more activity on the roads,” President Akufo-Addo told the lawmakers in his address.
But taking his turn in the debate of that address, Mr Fuseini said the President must take the blame for the deteriorating nature of roads in the country.
According to him, progress on some of the roads under construction before the Akufo-Addo led government took over power have gone back to square one as surface works done have been washed away by water.
He said by this, should the contractors return to work, the cost for the construction of the roads will increase as works that might have been done would have to be done again and urged the government to return to the roads with urgency.
Works and Housing Minister, Samuel Atta Akyea, meanwhile, on his part decried the housing deficit in the country.
Mr Akyea said the 1.7 million annual deficit was unacceptable and that the government was putting measures in place to address the increasing gap.
He said a workable mortgage policy was in the offing to assist Ghanaian workers own houses as government make efforts to give them respite in all sectors of the economy.
He said as a result of the bad economy the outgone NDC government bequeathed the current administration, real estate companies were charging as high as 36 per cent on mortgages; a situation he said “won’t help.”
Government he said inherited a distressed economy with the debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at 73 per cent from 32 in 2009 culminating into government paying 45 per cent of tax revenue to service debts.
He said government was at work and that the fruits of the policies being introduced will bear fruits for the betterment of the Ghanaian people.
