For decades, many people have likened the Accra-Kumasi road to one of the longest confessional boxes available in Ghana.
At least every Ghanaian who has traveled the stretch has a harrowing story of how their hearts have beaten faster than usual and tightened in their chests as though they wanted to jump into one’s throat, each time some reckless driver had made an ill-timed over-taking.
Ask any Ghanaian about the Accra-Kumasi road and you are sure to get a long-boring-sermon, not a simple answer. It is a road laden with potholes like ‘oware’- a local game, with long trucks crawling like wounded elephants fleeing at the Mole national park, on a 250km road that feels like 500km. To be modest, it has been a national endurance test!
So, the announcement of the Accra-Kumasi Expressway was thus a joyous moment that for the first time; Ghana is not patching the old story like we did with the Tema motorway for many years, but is writing a new story with a 6-lane Class A Expressway.
The Expressway project has become a topic for major national conversations.
For some, the project is progress and for others it’s a ‘here we go again’ moment. Another big promise that may never be fulfilled.
While some say it is a timely intervention that has never been seen before, others also say it should not be prioritized over the ongoing Accra-Kumasi highway.
While royalty and their subjects, hopeful traders, truck drivers, manufacturers, different classes of commuters, etc see it as a national pride and socio-economic lifeline, skeptics are busy arguing otherwise, with the view that it is impossible to achieve within one political term.
Meanwhile, the frustrated driver’s view is that the old road is killing them and their passengers. They lament that the old road also has poor lighting and takes a longer travel time of between four to six hours. For them, the expressway will be safe enough to prevent hundreds of accidents and deaths and they desire that relief immediately.
And then there is the political twist of the project. While functionaries and fanatics of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) believe that it is a novel election master stroke shrouded in a legacy, their arch-rivals in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) think that, even with the speed with which the military cleared the right of way and, the fact that the government is committed and has not borrowed for the project, it is not enough to shake them from grabbing power in 2028.
Now, given this barrage of factual and emotional effusions, one can say that the Accra-Kumasi Expressway is a very facto-emotional road for Ghanaians at the moment, particularly for everyone who has ever used the old N6 road from Accra to Kumasi.
Ghana has talked about having a national spine for close to 70 years. Now, if President John Mahama puts real actions to his words, he will be seen as bulldozing the talk after it was abandoned in the Busia era. But, will he really demonstrate a decision that the endurance is over and the execution must begin now?
THE PROJECT AT A GLANCE
The Accra-Kumasi Expressway, is Ghana’s first 6-lane access-controlled expressway, of 198.7km. Per the current calculation, it will cut what is now a 250km journey route by over 50km. It is meant to serve as an alternative and not a replacement for the old N6 highway.
It has 4-lane connectors in Accra and Kumasi. It also features eight (8) interchanges, eleven (11) overpasses, fifty-five (55) bridges, two (2) twenty (20) e-toll plazas and four (4) service areas at an estimated cost of four billion dollars ($4 billion) in total.
When completed, the road will stimulate industrial parks, logistics hubs and service economies and bring the business lives of the communities along it alive all over again.
It also has allowance on the wings to permit the construction of rail lines from Accra – Kumasi. This, would also help to transport people and goods. A look at the vision and plan will indicate that this is not just an expressway, but it is an expressway forward to the north and beyond.
THE TIMELINES
Sometime in July 2025, during his Ashanti regional ‘Thank You Tour’, President Mahama floated the idea and dropped the bombshell that “…. by 2029, commuters will experience a modern and efficient highway.”
The people clapped politely; not knowing whether to believe or doubt him, because they are used to such promises by politicians, who promise things very often and do nothing about same.
But this promise was different. It proved not to be another talk shop. By November 2025, Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson had announced and locked it in the 2026 Budget presented on behalf of the President and his government.
Then came the green light in December 2025, when Parliament approved concession to Accra-Kumasi Expressway Limited. On paper, the deed was done, but how was it going to be on the ground?
Fast forward to January 2026, the actual ‘go’ signal came from President Mahama with clarity that the construction will begin unabated and without the drama, grammar and complexities of feasibility and the studies thereof.
Later in March 2026, the jungle was signaled to bow to the uniform and equipment of the 48 Engineer Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) .
The GAF proved why they are the real MVPs. They understood the mission and zoomed straight into action to accomplish a 20-weeks assignment in 19.
Their task was to create the right of way through a virgin forest corridor from Ablekuma through Adeiso, Asamankese, Akyem Oda, Ofoase, Lake Bosomtwe to Kwaso. They employed military discipline, engineering precision, pure patriotism and commitment to achieve this. Their ‘obey before complain mantra’ saved us all the protests, drama and no “mobilization fee” stories. It was all boots, blades, results and a loud ahua!
They officially handed over the right of way on Monday September 11, 2026. Sod cutting is slated for sometime in December, 2026 as announced by the President, with an estimated completion time line of 2029. The rest they say is history.
WHAT IT MEANS
The Accra-Kumasi Expressway hits in three languages. These are the economic, social and political languages.
First, it speaks the Economic language that time is money and provides a potent economic stimulus for various sectors.
Secondly, it speaks the social language of migrating people from a death trap to a peaceful haven. When completed, people can travel safe and arrive alive to their businesses and dear ones.
Thirdly, it also speaks the political language of connecting Accra and Kumasi to go beyond just voting and move to fix the spine of the nation with smart politics and good infrastructure.
A critical question is: If your house is choked, do you repaint it, build an extension or get another house to complement it?
That’s the debate as to who is right and who is wrong. Well, some persons have said that the N6 was designed for 1960s Ghana. Presently, we are in 2026 Ghana. Therefore, they hold the view that no amount of patching will carry more than ten thousand vehicles daily.
Ghana’s reality needs both — maintain the old, build the new and give people the freedom to choose either the free and slow one or the fast and tolled one.
FUNDING
At the right of way handing over ceremony on Monday September 14, 2026, President Mahama emphatically reiterated Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson’s pronouncements that home generated money for the works is secured, cedi-backed, Bank of Ghana domiciled, not IMF-dependent.
To quote President Mahama “….this is our own money. We haven’t borrowed money from anywhere…”
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
In the area of direct economic benefits, about 4 hours will be saved per trip. So if we go by the 10,000+ vehicles that ply the N6 daily, that will amount to 40,000 man-hours saved daily.
The Vehicle Operating Cost will also come down to forty percent percent (40%) less fuel, tyres, brake pads, engine wear due to the 50km shorter journey and the smooth Class A road.
The two twenty-lane e-tolls will generate a self-financing loop with the user-pay model where users of the expressway pay higher and the old N6 remains free or with low toll
It also becomes a reliable logistics corridor that will stimulate industrial parks, warehouses, fuel stations, etc.
In terms of social & safety benefits, the N6 is perhaps, Ghana’s deadliest road. In August 2026, it recorded two crashes where 27 people were killed in a space of 10 days. But with controlled access, 120km/h design and adequate lighting, there will be massive reduction in head-on overtaking deaths.
A quick look at the execution benefit courtesy the 48 Engineer Regiment, commercial clearing quotation ranged between GH¢15 – 18bn. The soldiers did it for GH¢10.9bn.
Ghana loses an estimated $1.2bn yearly to road accidents, congestion and vehicle breakdowns on N6 alone. Cutting travel from 6hrs to 2hrs with -40% travel cost flips that loss into productivity.
Ultimately, the risk is not the idea but the execution. For example:
1. If the old N6 is abandoned, a class system is created. The rich will be on the expressway while the poor remain on the snail-paced potholed road.
2. If the toll is too high, revenue targets will fail.
3. If the completion goes beyond Jan 2029, cost overrun could eat the benefit.
4. If the NDC doesn’t stay in power, a new government may abandon the project.
CONTRACTORS
When the military announced that it has completed the right of way clearing mission ahead of schedule, majority of Ghanaians took to both traditional and social media platforms to plead with the President to include the military in the actual construction works. It appears Ghanaians may have forgotten the atrocities of the military in the recent past either in elections or the aftermath and, are embracing the new image tightly.
Well, the President listened to the wish of the people and announced and directed the Minister for Roads and Highways to make the 48 Engineer Regiment the major sub contractor.
This decision is because of the quality of work executed and for the promise shown.
The Roads and Highways Minister Kwame Agbodza also indicated that the contract had been advertised as of Friday 11th September, 2026 and opened as a competitive international tender.
APPRECIATION
This is where the plaudits must be loud. We salute to the doers.
To President John Dramani Mahama, thank you for dreaming beyond potholes like every one of your predecessors who fixed sections of N6. You decided to build a proper expressway fit for the 21st century. As the Kwasohene Nana Osei Fosu Adutwum said, this you have resurrected a long abandoned dream.
To Roads & Highways Minister, Hon. Kwame Governs Agbodza and Deputy Hon. Alhassan Suhuyini and their technical team, thank you for holding the compass firmly and for being the boots firmly on the ground. Your sense of determination and clarity killed the confusion early.
To the Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson and his team, thank you for organizing the public purse such that we do not have to borrow to build and lay a burden on future generations.
To the Samurai and Panda Bond merchants who were hoping that they would have been contacted to secure loans for ‘nokofioo’, well thank you, but no thank you!
To the Ghana Armed Forces, and especially the Men and Women of the 48 Engineer Regiment who did what both Napoleon and Jezebel could not do, Ghana salutes you.
To all the Chiefs and elders, landowners, and communities along the path of this big push crown jewel project, thank you for not holding the nation to ransom, for backing the vision, its implementers and the bulldozers.
To all who wish to see this project materialize, thank you.
To all who wish that this project will not materialize, thank you too.
THE WAY FORWARD
Now the right-of-way is cleared. The funding has been secured. I am not sure if the keys have been handed over to the IGP? The soldiers have done their part. We feverishly await the contractors to also show their score card.
It is incumbent on the Minister for Roads and Highways and his selection team to choose the best contractors who will deliver quality in good time as has been done for some of the other big push projects around the country.
I can’t wait to do 2 hours, 30 minutes travel from Accra to Kumasi to my favourite fufu joint near the stadium with my air-condition on, cruise control set, and no prayer against potholes.
FINAL THOUGT
If all stakeholders keep their focus and put in the hard work, this road will be done. Not for NDC nor for NPP, but for the market woman moving tomatoes from Ejura to Accra. For the student moving from KNUST to Kokomlemle. For the Ghanaian who simply wants to travel and arrive alive on time.
May this vision become a reality so that the Accra-Kumasi Expressway will live the dream of being Ghana’s great and first shortcut.
To those who are so blinded by politics to oppose the construction of this project, they must realize quickly that it is not leading to Bole-Bamboi where President Mahama comes from. Nevertheless, if anyone is comfortable to spend about five thousand cedis just to fly from Kumasi to Accra and back, that’s good for them.
For those of us who cannot afford that, we will pray for the road to be completed so that we can ride to Kumasi from Accra within our means and not bleed financially. Hopefully, that may get the airlines to drop their prices too!
By Johnnie Hughes
