Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has announced that full funding for the Accra-Kumasi Expressway will be secured by the end of 2026 without any borrowing, congratulating the Ghana Armed Forces on clearing 170 of the 176-kilometre corridor ahead of construction.
Ato Forson’s announcement, made in a statement following the military’s latest progress update, positions the funding arrangement as potentially unprecedented in Ghana’s infrastructure history.
Presidential Spokesperson and Minister for Government Communications Felix Kwakye Ofosu reinforced the announcement separately, framing the project’s scale and financing model as a landmark achievement for the Mahama administration.
“Not a Single Pesewa Will Be Borrowed”
Dr Ato Forson opened by praising the military’s engineering work on the corridor. “Hearty congratulations to our indefatigable army on a stellar job,” he said.
He then turned to the financing behind the project itself, stating plainly that the government intends to complete funding arrangements within months. “By the end of this year, the full funding for the transformational Accra-Kumasi Expressway will be ready,” he said.
Dr Ato Forson framed the funding model as historically significant for Ghana’s infrastructure sector. “This could be the first time funds for a project of this scale have been fully secured before construction begins,” he said. “For the avoidance of doubt, not a single pesewa will be borrowed for this project.”
$1.7 Billion Already Deposited
Dr Forson’s announcement builds on figures he disclosed during the 2026 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review, when he revealed that $1.7 billion had already been secured and deposited into a dedicated account at the Bank of Ghana, awaiting the project’s commencement.
He has previously put the expressway’s total cost at approximately $4 billion, telling the Ishmael Yamson and Associates Business Roundtable in May that the government intended to fund the entire project across 2025, 2026 and 2027 using internally generated revenue rather than loans.
Central to that funding strategy is a shift in how Ghana allocates its petroleum revenue. Forson has said new legislation now directs oil revenues exclusively toward infrastructure development, ending a previous pattern of spreading those funds thinly across recurrent expenses including travel and conferences.
He has cited approximately $500 million in oil revenue earned in 2025, supplemented by a further $500 million from mineral royalties driven by high gold prices, as key contributors to the expressway fund.
Kwakye Ofosu: “The Man Is the Man”
Felix Kwakye Ofosu amplified Forson’s announcement with his own statement, drawing out what he described as two defining implications of the funding model. “With 170km cleared for the new Accra-Kumasi Expressway, Minister for Finance says all funds for the project will be ready by close of this year,” he wrote. “Two things flow from this.”
He argued first that the expressway would become the single largest piece of infrastructure built by any Ghanaian government, and second that it would mark the first time in the country’s history that a project of this scale and magnitude has been funded entirely with domestic resources, without reliance on external assistance.
He closed his statement with a direct endorsement of the President. “President Mahama is the man!” he wrote.
A Corridor Nearly Cleared
The funding announcement follows closely on an update from the Ghana Armed Forces confirming that engineers have cleared 170 of the 176-kilometre right of way needed for the expressway, with just six kilometres remaining. The military described the effort as approaching its conclusion. “The finish line is in sight,” the Armed Forces said in its update. “Out of 176 kilometres of challenging terrain, just six kilometres remain. The elite Ghana Armed Forces Engineers have pushed through with absolute grit. The race to Sawua is almost won.”
The clearing exercise, which began in April 2026, was deployed during Forson’s own tenure as Acting Minister for Defence, a period that preceded the corridor work now nearing completion.
As of June 25, 2026, only about 89.5 kilometres, roughly half the route, had been cleared, meaning the military’s progress over the following weeks accelerated sharply ahead of the current near-complete status.
What Comes Next
With the corridor’s right of way nearly cleared and financing on track to be fully secured by December, the project moves toward its next phase. Feasibility studies and detailed engineering designs are expected to conclude soon, with contractor selection for the main construction contract anticipated to begin in September 2026.
The completed expressway, designed as a six-lane corridor with interchanges, bridges, intelligent transportation systems and electronic tolling, is expected to cut travel time between Accra and Kumasi to roughly two hours, down from the current several-hour journey along the congested existing route.
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