Parliament has approved a concession agreement for the re-introduction of tolling on roads and bridges in Ghana under a public-private agreement.
The purpose of the agreement is to establish a legal and commercial framework for the financing, design, construction, operation, maintenance and eventual transfer of a nationwide electronic toll collection.
It is to enhance toll collection through internationally accepted electronic tolling technology, restore a sustainable source of funding for road maintenance, improve operational efficiency, reduce revenue leakages and enhance transparency in toll administration.
It is an agreement between the Ministry of Roads and Highways, acting on behalf of the Ghana government, and a special purpose vehicle to be incorporated by Rock Africa Limited.
The firm will be mobilising private investment towards the development and operation of the electronic tolling system.
Coverage
The agreement aims to cover 66 tolling locations distributed across 13 operational corridors, comprising 38 existing toll locations and 28 newly identified strategic toll locations.
The agreement provides for a gross revenue sharing arrangement under which the government of Ghana will receive 70 per cent of toll revenues, while the concessionaire will receive 30 per cent.
It provides for a concession period of 20 years, comprising three years for design and construction and 17 years for operation and maintenance.
At the expiry of the concession period, all project assets will be transferred to the government of Ghana in accordance with the terms of the agreement.
The concession agreement was presented to the House on Wednesday, July 29, 2026 by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources on behalf of the Roads and Highways Minister.
It was referred to the Roads and Transportation Committee for consideration.
The House approved the motion after the Chairman of the committee, Isaac Adjei Mensah, presented the committee’s report and requested the House to adopt the report and approve the agreement.
Raking in more revenue
Seconding the motion, the Ranking Member on the Roads and Transportation Committee, Kennedy Osei Nyarko, said the committee came to the conclusion that the re-introduction of tolls on roads and bridges would help rake in more revenue for the Road Trust Maintenance Fund.
He recalled that in 2022, the previous administration decided to suspend the collection of road tolls to be able to put proper structures in place and expand the collection of road and bridge tolls.
He said that by the time the previous administration exited office, Cabinet had already approved a roadmap for the re-introduction of road toll.
“So, I am happy that the current government did not abandon the previous Cabinet’s approval of the re-introduction of road tolls,” he said.
Let’s support agreement
Supporting the motion, the member of Parliament for Bimbilla, Dominic Nitiwul, urged colleague members of the House to support the motion.
He, however, said the previous government abolished road tolls in the past in order not to burden Ghanaians with both e-levy and road tolls.
“When we sat in Cabinet and the e-levy came, we knew it would bring some bit of burden to Ghanaians with lots of queues with people spending lots of hours and burning fuel.
“We calculated that we could get as much as GH10 billion then on the e-levy but we realised that the easiest way was to remove the road toll that was giving us less GH100 million,” he said.
He said he supported the motion if the government would bring back road toll in electronic form and would not inconvenience Ghanaians.
“The road tolls are electronic and it is 20 years, I think it is good for us to support it,” he said.
Source: Graphic.com.gh
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