Business News of Friday, 1 October 2021
Source: gbcghanaonline.com
2021-10-01
File photo of a road toll booth
The conversation on whether road tolls should be increased has resurfaced with a former Minister of Roads and Highways Inusah Fuseini backing calls for an upward adjustment.
This is to enable the government to generate enough resources to improve the road network in the country. Mr. Fuseini said Ghana pays the lowest amount in terms of road tolls in West Africa, which according to him is less than $1, as a result of the depreciation of the cedi.
He said the onus lay on the Minister of Roads and Highways to determine this through consultations regarding the percentage of increase.
“I think we should look at the possibility of raising the road tolls that we pay in Ghana. Within the West African sub-region, Ghana pays the lowest rate in terms of road tolls.
“The 1 Ghana cedi is not enough because a dollar is 6 Ghana cedis meaning what we pay is less than 1$ and that hampers our abilities to continue to maintain the roads,” he said.
On the issue of how much Ghanaians should pay for road tolls going forward, he said ” the Minister Kweku Amoako Attah and his team have to do all the metrics and come out with what they think Ghanaian road users can pay”.
Executive Director of Revenue Mobilization Africa, Geoffrey Ocansey shared similar sentiments. He was however not in favour of private institutions being put in charge of the collections. He said any increase should take effect from January 2022.
“I am for the road toll increment but the timing, I think the government should hold on and bring this increment next January. This is because of the pandemic. Personally I do not see the reason why we are subjecting the collection of these tolls to private companies,” according to Geoffrey Ocansey.