- Ato Forson Says Ghana Will Build US$4 Billion Expressway Without Borrowing
Ghana is preparing to finance the proposed US$4 billion Accra–Kumasi Expressway without new borrowing, in what could become one of the most consequential tests of the country’s attempt to convert oil and mineral revenues into visible infrastructure rather than recurrent expenditure.
Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, speaking at the Ishmael Yamson & Associates Business Roundtable on Thursday, said the government intends to use accumulated petroleum revenues and mineral royalties between 2025 and 2027 to fund the project.
“Granted, the Accra–Kumasi Expressway is going to cost us US$4 billion. We’ll fund it without borrowing,” Dr Forson said, signalling a marked departure from Ghana’s long-standing reliance on debt to execute major infrastructure projects.
The pledge comes at a time when Ghana remains under tight fiscal discipline following its debt restructuring and International Monetary Fund-supported economic programme, leaving limited room for large-scale borrowing without reopening concerns over debt sustainability.
According to Dr Forson, Ghana generated about US$500 million in petroleum revenue in 2025, with a further US$500 million realised from mineral royalties, helped by elevated global gold prices. He said the combined US$1 billion is being directed toward the Accra–Kumasi Expressway, with government projections showing that petroleum and mineral revenues could rise to about US$2.5 billion by the end of 2026.
The Finance Minister also disclosed that mineral royalties previously channelled through the Minerals Income Investment Fund into treasury bill investments are now being redirected into infrastructure financing.
The shift reflects a broader policy decision to use extractive sector revenues for fewer, high-impact capital projects rather than spreading them across multiple budget lines. Government has already amended the Petroleum Revenue Management Act to allow the Annual Budget Funding Amount to be used for infrastructure development under the “Big Push” initiative.
“We’ve said that use Ghana’s oil revenue only for infrastructure use,” Dr Forson said, criticising what he described as the past use of petroleum proceeds on items such as travel, conferences and other recurrent expenditure.
For government, the Accra–Kumasi Expressway is emerging as the flagship project through which it hopes to demonstrate that Ghana’s natural resource revenues can be ring-fenced for transformational infrastructure.
The proposed expressway is expected to improve connectivity between the country’s political and commercial capital, Accra, and Kumasi, the economic hub of the middle belt. It is also expected to ease logistics costs, reduce travel time, improve trade movement and support domestic commerce along one of Ghana’s busiest transport corridors.
But the funding model also raises important questions.
While the pledge to avoid fresh borrowing may appeal to markets and fiscal watchers, the government will have to demonstrate that projected petroleum and mineral revenues are realistic, legally ring-fenced, transparently managed and protected from political expenditure pressures.
The Public Interest and Accountability Committee has already called for greater transparency over the earmarking of petroleum revenues for the Accra–Kumasi Expressway, noting that funds allocated into a special account for the project must strictly follow the law.
That caution is significant. Ghana’s petroleum revenue framework was originally designed to balance current spending needs, stabilisation, future savings and development financing. Any shift toward heavy infrastructure earmarking therefore requires strong oversight to ensure that the country does not replace debt accumulation with weak project discipline.
The Accra–Kumasi Expressway also carries execution risk. A US$4 billion road project funded from annual petroleum and mineral inflows will require careful sequencing of contracts, procurement, payments and implementation timelines. Any shortfall in oil revenue, decline in gold prices or delay in royalty mobilisation could affect the pace of delivery.
Still, the political economy of the announcement is clear. After years of criticism that Ghana’s oil revenues have failed to produce the kind of visible national assets expected after commercial production began, Dr Forson is attempting to recast extractive revenues as a direct infrastructure financing instrument.
“After 2027, we’ll target another project. And gradually, we’ll build the country going into the future,” he said.
The success or failure of that approach will likely be judged not only by whether the Accra–Kumasi Expressway is eventually built, but by whether the financing model can withstand Ghana’s familiar weaknesses: fragmented spending, procurement opacity, cost overruns, political interference and weak public reporting.
For now, the government’s message is straightforward: Ghana will not borrow to build the expressway.
The more difficult test will be proving that oil and gold revenues, long absorbed into the budget with limited transformational visibility, can now be disciplined enough to finance one of the country’s most ambitious road projects without recreating the fiscal pressures the government says it is trying to avoid.
