GOVERNMENT HAS asked Parliament to approve a €21 million loan deal with Deutsche investors to finance the design and construction of Phase 1 of the Suame Interchange and the Ancillary Works Project in Kumasi.
The agreement was presented to Parliament for consideration yesterday by the Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei Asare, on behalf of the government.
The commercial facility agreement is between the government (represented by the Minister for Finance) and Deutsche Bank S.A.E. (as Arranger, Structuring Bank, Mandated Lead Arranger and Agent).
Also presented for approval of the House was the contract agreement between the government (represented by the Minister for Roads and Highways through the Department of Urban Roads) and Rango-Dizmar JV (a Joint Venture between Rango Construction Company Limited and Talleres Dizmar S.L.) for an amount of €140 million to undertake the project.
Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, who was in the chair, referred the two agreements to the Finance Committee and the Roads and Highways Committee for consideration and report.
This comes after the Majority Leader and MP for Suame constituency, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, told a crowd in his constituency that Parliament would meet to discuss the loan facility from Spain for the four-tier interchange to commence.
Start Date
The Suame Interchange project is expected to start in September, 2022, Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, announced.
“President Nana Akufo-Addo is expected to cut the sod for the commencement of the Suame Interchange road project in September,” he declared during a meeting on Monday.
He encouraged the residents to bear with the contractors when work begins.
“When construction works starts, surely there would be dust in the atmosphere, traffic flow in the constituency would be affected …but we should all remain calm and throw our weight behind the contractors so that the massive project would be executed,” he appealed.
The Suame MP was having discussions with some major stakeholders in the Suame Magazine, regarding the state of roads in the constituency.
He openly admitted that indeed the main Suame-Afrancho road is in bad condition, stressing that contractors have resumed work on the road.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said through his intervention, a number of road projects have been executed in Suame during the last four years.
He said the Maakro Township road has been asphalted, New Suame Electoral Area roads fixed, Magazine Club 600 roads tarred and the Osborn Junction-Nkwantwoma road fixed.
Recently, there was drama as some angry youth blocked the main Suame road to register their anger over the bad nature of the road, some few minutes before the meeting.
The police had to rush there to ensure calm, but no arrest was made as the police managed to restore law and order at the place.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu & I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr.