In 2007, Prez John Agyekum Kuffuor had a dream, the need to establish a modernized railroad to connect territories in Ghana.
His administration conceived a Port-to-Port project which was meant to link Tema to the Volta lake transport system.
A feasibility study was conducted but it was too late to complete this dream by himself before his administration came to an end.
Fast forward in 2012, when Prez John Dramani Mahama came to government, he secured the primary funding for the project through contract agreement with the AFCONS Infrastructure of India and managed to secure about $398.33 million credit facility from the Indian Exim Bank.
This project was meant to cover about 84km of railway line stretching from Tema to Akosombo.
However, John Mahama didn’t start the project before leaving office in 2016.
When Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo assumed office in 2017, he vowed to see to the successful implementation and completion of the visionary idea birthed by his godfather, J.A Kuffuor and lo and behold, he truly went by his word.
The project finally foresaw its first phase between April and October 2017.
After subsequent reviews of the ongoing project, the route was extended from 84km to 97.6km.
The project was finally completed and inaugurated by President Akufo-Addo in November 2024 before leaving office.
This is how Ghana is supposed to operate, working closely with each other, this is what we term as “government is continuous”.
One government birthed the idea!
Another secured funding through third party contract!
And another supervising and completing the project.
Yet the story behind this project took a different turn, as each administration fights to own credit, damaged was felt.
We all witnessed the outcome during the testing period where a truck was deliberately packed on a railroad causing a collision with the train. A plan to sabotage Nana Addo’s government from fully operationalizing it and taking full credit. Sad reality!
And if anyone should be given credit, it should be John Agyekum Kuffuor, the conceiver, John Mahama for lobbying the finance and Nana Addo for supervision and task execution.
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Signed: #mcquaim
Author: Michael M. McQuaim
