The Ministry of Finance has released €7 million out of the remaining €9 million for the completion of the Kumasi International Airport.
The project was scheduled to be completed in June 2023, but delay in the release of funds halted work.
The newly appointed Finance Minister, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam expects the contractors to complete and hand over the project within two months.
“This project would’ve been completed some time ago, but for the financial challenge that we faced. We have made efforts to address it. Part of the outstanding amount of money which was to be paid for the project to resume has been paid to the contractor. What is left is €2 million which we are going to pay within one week, so that the contractor will have no excuse as far as funding is concerned. I’m impressing on them to make sure that by the end of April they bring a closure to this project, so we can begin to use it”, he disclosed after inspecting the facility.
Work on the project is about 90 percent complete.
“What is left is the runway extension and control tower. The old terminal will be demolished to comply with rules governing international airport standards, because the old facilities are very close to the runways. We will need at least 3 months to complete the project”, Project Director at Contracta Construction, Jorge Tavares de Almeida explained.
The Finance Minister also inspected the state of affairs at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Mother and Child Health project site.
Work on the 500-bed capacity facility was left hanging at 35 percent complete since January 2023.
But Dr Amin Adam revealed €14 million has been released for the contractors to remobilize and return to site.
“Financial challenges forced us to declare debt suspension which affected key government projects across the country including the KATH MBU project. But the good news is that the President has directed that we find money to complete the project. We’ve made some payment to enable the contractor return to site to complete part of the outstanding works”, he said.
Chief Executive Officer of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Professor Otchere Addai-Mensah was alarmed with cases of maternal mortality.
“Maternal mortality rate has gone up because of the referrals we are getting from many of these regions. We serve 12 out of the 16 regions in the country. It is our firm belief that once the maternity block is completed, the quality of care we will be able to give to our patients would be improved”, he hoped.