The Roads and Highways Ministry has confirmed that 10,875 kilometers of new roads have been constructed under the Akufo-Addo administration since 2017.

President Akufo-Addo while delivering the 2022 State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Wednesday, said his government has constructed 10,875 km of new road within the five years he has been in office.

He described this as the greatest and unprecedented achievement in the infrastructure sector in the history of Ghana.

“Some 10,875 kilometres of new road have been constructed in these five years. Mr Speaker, it is in the road sector that we have registered the greatest infrastructure achievement,” he said.

The President’s comment, however, did not augur well for the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Transport Committee, Governs Kwame Agbodza.

Speaking on Top Story on Wednesday, he accused President Akufo-Addo of cooking up figures in his speech with regard to roads.

“I concede that that figure of 1,463 today, between the day the press conference was done and today, would have been more. I can even give them even 1,600 km, even 2,000 km which is actually over estimation… so how on earth does the President stand in front of Parliament, the people’s representatives, and conjure a figure of 10,000 km, it has not happened,” he said.

But the Ministry in a press statement on Thursday highlighted a number of roads that have been constructed by the government to affirm the President’s statement.

According to the Ministry, from 2017 to May, 2021, 4,263km of roads were constructed and 1,502km of roads were constructed from June to December, 2021 while 5,110km have been constructed from December, 2021 to February, 2022.

“In 2017, the total network size was 78,402kms. As of the end of 2021, the projected network size has increased to 94,203kms. The data on completed works have subsequently been updated to 10,875kms as at end of February 2022.

“Over the past 5 years, a lot of investment had gone into both the paved and unpaved roads to improve the riding quality on our roads. The 10,875 kilometres of roads constructed have been on both paved and unpaved roads,” the Ministry noted.

The Ministry also said the World Bank is financing over 800km of feeder roads to gravel-finish, under a World Bank/European Union Project- Transport Sector Improvement Project (TSIP).