The Member of Parliament (MP) for Oforikrom Constituency, Dr. Emmanuel Kwabena Marfo
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Oforikrom Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Dr. Emmanuel Kwabena Marfo, is calling on the government to utilize Public Private Partnership (PPP) to improve the country's road infrastructure, particularly in urban areas.
Ghana's economy heavily relies on road infrastructure to facilitate the movement of goods and services, and the current state of the country's roads is inadequate and requires immediate attention.
Dr. Marfo firmly believes that the government alone cannot address the road deficit due to its limited financial capacity. Therefore, he suggests that the PPP model can bridge this gap by attracting private sector investments.
The private sector can provide innovation, expertise, and financing to complement government efforts in developing the country's road infrastructure.
To encourage private investment, Dr. Marfo proposes that private investors should be allowed to use their capital to construct roads leading to their residences or workplaces. In return, they should be permitted to toll the roads at a prescribed fee to recoup their investment.
“Sometimes when you go to some parts of Accra or Kumasi or in any other city in Ghana, you will see how nice private buildings are erected. And you look at the kind of roads that are there you wonder at what point government will be able to secure money to go and construct roads in those communities.
“We need to think about the PPP model where private investors or people who are building in these areas could be allowed to pull some private capital to develop the local roads and find a way to get their investment paid back either by using their investment to offset their payment for property rates or allowing them to toll the roads in those communities for a certain prescribed fee so that in the long term they will be able to recoup that investment. By so doing, you will get private people helping government road infrastructure within the merging communities in our cities,” Dr. Marfo made the suggestion in Ghana’s parliament yesterday.
“So perhaps, we need to think about how we can use PPP to develop the country,” he added.
Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is a collaboration between a government agency and a private sector entity. This collaboration involves sharing resources, risks, and rewards to design, finance, construct, operate, and maintain public infrastructure, services, or facilities.
PPP has become increasingly popular around the world for developing essential infrastructure like roads and other essential projects.
