President John Dramani Mahama has pledged that Ghanaian contractors will be at the forefront of his government’s flagship Big Push infrastructure programme.

Speaking at the official launch of the initiative in Afienya in the Greater Accra region on Tuesday, September 16, the President said a thorough vetting process had been carried out to ensure that only contractors with proven capacity and competence were engaged.

“We have gone through a very rigorous procedure to choose the contractors who will work on the Big Push project. That is because we believe quality and speed are important. We have assessed all the contractors and looked at their capacity,” he stated.

He stressed that the government would not compromise on quality standards, noting that durability depended largely on proper groundwork.

“The quality of roads is dependent on how compact the soil is. If you compact it well and you put the bitumen on it, the road will last forever. But in some places, contractors are in a hurry, so they just work on the surface while the base is left loose. When heavy trucks move on such roads, they begin to sink. We do not want that in the Big Push,” President Mahama explained.

Highlighting the priority given to local expertise, the President revealed that most of the contractors selected are Ghanaian firms.

“The majority of the contractors selected for the Big Push are Ghanaians, because we believe in building the capacity of our own contractors. We believe in the performance of our Ghanaian contractors. Several of them have the same capacity as foreign contractors,” he said.

He added, however, that some foreign contractors with ongoing contracts before his administration assumes office would also be incorporated.

“We have not terminated those contracts. What we have done is to repackage them and add them to the Big Push so that we can continue and complete them quickly,” he explained.

The government has allocated GH¢13.85 billion (US$892.9 million) for the Big Push programme.

There are 42 road projects under the Big Push Programme.