The government has revealed that the collection of tolls will soon be re-introduced on the Tema Motorway under the Ministry of Roads and Highways (MoRH) Public-Private Partnership (PPP).
Presenting the Mid-year Budget Review on Monday, 25th July 2022, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister said a draft Concession Agreement (CA) between GIIF and the Ministry of Roads and Highways (MoRH) is currently under review by the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Finance.
READ ALSO: Gov’t To Bring Back Tolls On Tema Motorway – Ofori Atta
“When completed, the CA is expected to be approved by the PPP Committee, Cabinet and Parliament. The completed road will be tolled to recover the whole life cost of the completed infrastructure as well as pay lenders and provide a return for equity investors,” he disclosed.
Mr Ken Ofori-Atta explained that the Government of Ghana will give funding through GIIF to take equity in the Special Purpose Vehicle to be created by GIIF for the project.
Following this, Ghanaians took to Twitter to charge the government to scrap the e-levy after re-introducing the toll collection.
Earlier this year, the government imposed e-levy on Ghanaians against their will after scrapping toll collection across the country.
The e-levy kick off on May 1, 2022, but the government have not been able to generate the expected revenue it perceived.
Due to the lacking of revenue from the e-levy, the government went back to IMF for a bailout.
Below are some reactions from Ghanaians on Twitter;
They are now charging E-levy on some first 100 cedis transactions of the day. Shameless thieves!
— Manasseh Azure Awuni (@Manasseh_Azure) July 23, 2022
Removing tollbooths to introduce E-levy just to reintroduce tollbooths after implementing E-LEVY is the biggest scam of the Nana Akufo-Addo government.
— Albert Nat Hyde (@BongoIdeas) July 25, 2022
The mid-year review budget is clear evidence of a confused government. Restoring road tolls with the e-levy still in existence. These days e-levy fee is applied on transactions less than 100ghs and commercial transactions. Sika di saaaaa. #AMShow
— Men’s Vogue (@ing_fiificontis) July 26, 2022
E-levy was supposed to be a substitute for IMF and road tolls but now we have a three headed beast.
— Receipts Guy (@receiptsguy) July 25, 2022
E-Levy, IMF and more Road Tolls
A principled government would've at least cancelled E-levy by now but NPP doesn't have principles.
The report is clear. E-levy is obnoxious and useless.
— KOJO DYNAMIC 𓃵 (@AnnanPerry) July 14, 2022
The government is useless pic.twitter.com/7EV9uJxDlP
You removed tollbooths for e-levy, so why bring tollbooth back?
— KOJO DYNAMIC 𓃵 (@AnnanPerry) July 25, 2022
Ken ofori Atta ne criminal syndicates fuo no er
The E-Levy is not coming so they want to resume Toll collection.
— Don (@Opresii) July 25, 2022
READ ALSO: Finance Minister Announces End Of NABCo In September 2022
In other news, after a shaky four-year run, the Nation Builders Corp (NaBCo) programme will end on September 1, 2022.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta made this announcement while presenting the Mid-year Budget Review on Monday 25th July 2022 at Parliament.
According to the Finance Minister, the youth employment initiative has engaged 100,000 young graduates and prepared many of them for the world of work.
“So far we have invested approximately GH¢2.2 billion. As they exit, the current cohort on the programme are encouraged to take advantage of the YouStart initiative and other existing programmes in our drive to Build an Entrepreneurial Nation,” the minister told Parliament.
In 2018, the government rolled out the NABCo as a policy to train young graduates to access funds for their business and train them for the job market.
However, the policy has been dogged by complaints of non-payment of allowance for beneficiaries in recent times.