Kwame Agbodza, the Roads and Highways Minister-designate, has revealed that some road contractors in Ghana are owed as little as ¢5,000 by the previous government, highlighting concerns over the management of road toll funds. 

During his vetting by the Appointments Committee on Monday, January 20, Agbodza discussed the controversial cancellation of road tolls by the Akufo-Addo administration. 

He expressed his surprise at the decision, stating that instead of cancelling the tolls, the government should have worked to improve the system by addressing the leakages and enhancing its effectiveness.

Mr Agbodza criticised the move as an act of illegality, pointing out that such a decision could not be made unilaterally. 

He noted that road tolling was an Act promulgated by Parliament

He suggested that there was some negligence in how the cancellation was handled, particularly as the government had claimed the road toll was generating only paltry ¢80 million.

The minister-designate emphasised that road tolls would be reintroduced, albeit in a modern form. 

He stated that the future system would involve technology, allowing for fairer and more efficient collection without the need for physical road obstructions or manual toll collection, ensuring a smoother experience for drivers.

"We decided to caution the government not to cancel road toll but rather find a way to make it better.

This means that we should find a way to block the leakages and enhance it.

So it was surprising that it was cancelled or they claimed they zeroed it.

For me, it was an act of illegality but it had an act and was a law so they couldn’t unilaterally do that. I believe there was some level of negligence in the way it was done."

"They claimed road toll was accruing just ¢80 million but today road contractors are working in Ghana which are owed GH¢5,000.

So the road toll is coming back but not in the form of building obstructions on the road for drivers to stop and somebody taking money from them but this coming in a form of technological and fair that will make it easy to collect," he stated