Upper East Minister Demands Urgent Action on Navrongo–Chuchuliga–Sandema Road Delays

The Upper East Regional Minister, Donatus Atanga Akamugri, has called on the Ministry of Roads and Highways to urgently address delays in the Navrongo–Chuchuliga–Sandema road project, citing growing pressure from residents.

Speaking during an inspection of ongoing projects under the government’s “Big Push” infrastructure agenda, Mr. Akamugri expressed concern over the slow pace of work. The inspection was led by the Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwame Governs Agbodza, accompanied by his deputy, Alhassan Suhuyini, contractors, and other officials.

While commending the Roads Minister for the visit, Mr. Akamugri stressed the need to resolve payment challenges affecting contractors to accelerate progress on the project. He noted that the timely completion of the road would help restore public confidence and allow residents to benefit from the government’s infrastructure efforts fully. “There is a lot of heat on we the leadership. I’m happy that the minister is here. I think that when you pay them, they will fast-track the work, which will help us,” he stated.

In response, Mr. Agbodza assured that payment concerns would be addressed promptly. He emphasized that completing key road projects remains a top priority for the President. ‎I am aware that if they had more resources, they could have been approaching 40 percent by now. We are going to support them to do that, and we will deal with their payment. If we complete this and a few of them, that will be the president’s dream,” the minister noted.
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Touching on the Tamale–Bolgatanga road project, the Roads Minister disclosed that the previous administration paid approximately $30 million in mobilization funds to an Indian contractor, JMC, which failed to deliver on the project.

He added that the Ministry, in collaboration with the Attorney General, will take legal steps to recover the funds from the contractor.‎ The minister revealed, “When Parliament approved 158.6 million dollars, in fact, the project should have been completed last year if everything had gone as planned. We paid that Indian company almost 30 million dollars in mobilization. He took the money and didn’t do even 1 percent of the work. We intend to work with the Attorney General next week to further pursue getting our money back.”