2-week payment deadline guaranteed for Big Push contractors

Roads and Highways Minister Governs Kwame Agbodza has announced that contractors working under the government’s Big Push infrastructure programme will be paid in not more than two weeks once they submit certified work.

This, he said, is a major step to keep projects moving smoothly across the country.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday, Minister Kwame Agbodza explained that the government has kept a record of previously stalled road projects due to long payment delays and is doing “everything possible to stop that from repeating.”

“If you raise a Big Push certificate, work certificate, we guarantee to pay you in two weeks,” he said, adding that contractors who had already submitted certificates will be paid immediately.

“This week every Big Push contractor who raised work certificate will be paid fully.”

The minister explained that the scale of the programme justifies the decision to swiftly pay contractors and to also give them the confidence to “stay on site and deliver work on schedule.”

“We have over GHC70 billion worth of projects, which is about GHC55 billion worth of projects under the Big Push and other projects we took on. We are expecting that given the level of activity we see on site, we should be pushing to draw down the bulk of that because some contractors may actually attempt to finish their lot this year, and when they finish you have to pay them, so we are drawing down the total payment through these swift payments,” he explained.

On funding, Minister Agbodza revealed that the Finance Ministry has allocated about GHC30 billion to the Big Push agenda this year.

“The finance minister allocated GHC13 something billion last year, this year he’s allocating GHC30 billion, making it over GHC40 billion by the close of this year,” he said, adding that this level of funding should help sustain work and “prevent the stop-start pattern that has affected road contracts in the past.”