Transport Minister Joseph Bukari Nikpe has said that all salary arrears owed Ghana’s railway workers will be paid by the end of April.
The pledge follows months of unpaid wages that have frustrated workers in a sector struggling with low revenue.
“One of the huge issues that the Ministry of Transport and our agency, the Railway Development Authority, we have on daily basis, and it gives us sleepless nights . . . is salary arrears … we inherited a system that had collapsed and not functioning. And so they couldn’t raise money to pay themselves.
As we talk today, we have been able to pay eight months of those salary arrears that we inherited and we are working hard, by the end of this month (April), we are going to clear the rest of the arrears of our railway workers,” Mr. Nikpe told journalists on April 23 after touring the Western Rail Line.
The Minister said pay is only part of the problem. To make the railway sustainable, his plan is to connect the Western Line directly to mining sites across the Western Region.
“Our aim is to reach to all the mining sites. That is when we will have a sustainable infrastructure of rail system in our country. And thankfully, the Western rail is one of the regions endowed with all these mineral resources,” he said.
Work is steadily progressing on the western rail line with the contractors, Amandi construction now focused on completing kilometers 32 to 40 on the stretch. The revamp however faces a major threat: galamsey. Illegal miners continue to dig close to sections of the track with the potential of raising costs.
“I have already written to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to activate NAIMOS, the national agency under his ministry. We have also formed a task force and of course it has to be sustained. Through the agency of the minister, I am hopeful that in the coming weeks, we are going to get additional resources from Ghana Railway Company Limited, our sister company to join us as part of the task force and we shall use it as a short-term engagement measure.
We have engaged the police, but this comes at a cost to the authority and not sustainable,” said Dr. Frederick Appoh, CEO of the Railways Development Authority. He vowed to work with state agencies to protect the lines.
The Minister’s tour also included RMS at Eshiem, where concrete sleepers for the project are now produced locally instead of being imported. He was happy about the local production as it cuts off the need for imports.
Railway workers say they welcome the promise but will watch the April deadline closely. Strike action remains on the table if payments delay.
By Ewurama Smith
