The Minister of Roads and Highways-designate, Kwame Governs Agbodza, has announced that the John Dramani Mahama government will not be putting up toll booths for the re-introduction of road tolls.
Speaking at his vetting in Parliament on Monday, January 20, 2025, Kwame Agbodza said that the government would rely on technology for the collection of the tolls when they are re-introduced.
He said that there would be no physical structures on the roads for the collection of the tolls; adding that the use of technology would not only ensure efficiency in the collection of the tolls, but would also ensure accountability.
“Yes, 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. It will be coming back based on a technological platform that makes it fair and that makes it easy to collect, easy to account for and for the public to know what the money is actually being used for.
“Together with the (sic) minister, we shall come out with a policy as to how that will be done,” he said while answering a question on the tolls being reintroduced.
The minister-designate also criticised the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government over the cancellation of the road tolls in 2021.
He said that the cancellation of the tolls by the government was illegal because only Parliament had the power to stop its collection.
“When the issue of the road toll started, our side, the former Minority Leader, together with me, decided to caution the government not to cancel or suspend road tolls, (but) let’s rather find ways of plugging the leakages in terms of the collection and enhance it. Hon. Haruna and I met Hon. Amoako Attah and gave our commitment that don’t cancel it. Indeed, we were surprised on the day they claimed they zeroed it.
“For me, it was an act of illegality. Yes, they said they just zeroed it, but it was a road fund and it had an Act, it was a law. So, you couldn’t unilaterally do that. As a result, I believe there was some level of negligence in the way it was done. They claimed the road toll was accruing only about 80 million. But today, there are contractors working for government of Ghana who are owed GH¢5,000 for weeding the roadside. Can you imagine how many roadside weed cleaners will be paid with 80 million? So, they cancelled it and our side consistently stood on principle and said bring the road toll back,” he reiterated.
In November 2021, the then Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Attah, unilaterally abolished the collection of road tolls despite opposition from the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, who stated that the action of Amoako-Attah was illegal and must be reversed.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
