Roads connecting rural communities to trunk roads across Ghana play a key role in the economy of Ghana as Ghana is an agrarian country that depends on the rural areas for its major exports.
PROJECTS TO THE ECONOMY OF GHANA
Joseph Wadjoly
BY JOSEPH WADJOLY
Cocoa, Coffee, Timber, Food produce and Minerals deposits that fetch foreign exchange for Ghana Government are all located in Rural Ghana
To this end the Ghana Government through the Ministry of Roads and Highways has dedicated the Department of Feeder Roads to Develop, Construct and Maintain Feeder Roads throughout rural Ghana.
According to World Bank report in 2021, 42.02 per cent of Ghanaians live in rural areas; it went on to define rural communities as town /community with less than 50.000 people.
In this regard, rural road projects (Feeder Roads) hold sway on the economy of Ghana. When rural roads projects are awarded by the Department of Feeder Roads, jobs are created for residents in the catchment area as a good number of them are employed at the site.
Apart from those employed by the contractor there are indirect job market created as a result of the ongoing construction works. Women in the community take advantage to sell food and water in certain cases construction materials are sourced from the catchment area.
Newly constructed feeder roads open up the rural communities to the rest of the country, newly constructed feeder attract more driver to ply the road making it easy for the rural folks to transport their farm produce to marketing centres .
Transport they say is a catalyst for development and so proper transport network would open up rural communities the way for key civil servants such as Teachers, Nurses and Agricultural Extension Officers to accept posting to rural areas.
The arrival of key Civil servants in the community would serve as a game changer in the community. Teachers teaching their wards, Nurses taking care of their health needs and Extension Officers educating the on modern and best practices in agriculture would enable them to concentrate on their farming.
Good rural connectivity to Trunk Roads (HIGHWAY) would help fast track the transportation of logistics to Schools, Health Centres and Agricultural Extension Stations for prompt implementation which will improve the lives of the rural folks/
57.08 per cent of Ghana’s urban population depends on the rural population for their food supply, the cost of transporting food stuff from the rural communities to the urban centres push the prices of staples higher in urban centres.
The market women often blame it on the high cost of transportation and drivers point fingers to the bad nature of the road the above paragraph shows the importance of the feeder road to the Government and people of Ghana.
