Finance main challenge in rail sector – Joe Ghartey

Cash is the main challenge confronting the rail sector in Ghana, however the right legal framework will be put in place to deal with this challenge, Joe Ghartey, Minister-designate for Railway Development, has said.

Speaking during his vetting by the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Thursday February 2, he said: “There are two or three things that in my view must happen in the sector. The president has shown commitment to rail by creating a Ministry for Railways and Development. For me, the significant thing about it is that the president has added ‘development’ to the name. Every other ministry is responsible for development, aviation is responsible for development in the aviation sector, health is responsible for development. He added ‘development’ because he is serious about the fact that we must get to Paga.

“I have talked about the time that it took the colonialists to construct the rail in 1898. To tell you the truth, what has happened as far as this thing is concerned is that it won’t take us a long time to go from Buipe to Paga. Because as you know, the geography there is vast. It is more difficult to do it in the southern part of the country and so it depends on right of access. Everywhere the train passes, from the median 100 feet to the left 100ft, to the right should not be encumbered. And so those are the kind of things that can frustrate us. The second thing of course that can frustrate us is money.

“Because as I said to get to Paga is about $5million and we are looking at a cocktail of BOT and several examples we are looking at. We are also looking, if possible, to give it to different contractors as sections, there are stand-alone sections, for example Tamale-Buipe-Paga is a standalone section, and from Buipe to Techiman is another section and so all these depend on how we manage.

“Finance is a major challenge. We have to create the legal institutional framework that will give us the finance. Luckily for us the president is fully committed to this agenda, fully backing it. The Finance Minister is also fully backing this agenda and so we have to be able to present what is called bankable projects to the president so that he gives his blessing so that the Finance Minister takes us forward.”