The World Bank has identified Ghana’s current transport sector as an area inimical to growth, quietly draining economic productivity, undermining competitiveness and limiting the country’s ability to turn growth into jobs and prosperity.
The World Bank says Ghana’s transport system is operating well below its potential, with inadequate roads, a deteriorating network, a near-collapsed railway system and fragmented institutional responsibilities combining to impose a high economic cost on the country.
Speaking at the launch of the 10th Ghana Economic Update in Accra, with special focus on the country’s transport sector, the World Bank Division Director for Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia, Robert Taliercio, described transport not merely as an infrastructure issue but as a growth, competitiveness and jobs issue.
“This is not just an infrastructure story – it is a growth story, a competitiveness story, a jobs story,” he noted.
Revealing the scale of the problem, Robert Taliercio indicated that Ghana has approximately 94,200 kilometres of roads, yet only 27% are paved. More than half of the country’s road network is in fair to poor condition, with the situation particularly severe on feeder roads.
For people living in rural communities, the consequences, he noted, are dire. A farmer may have a good harvest but struggle to get it to market because a feeder road becomes impassable. A trader may spend more transporting goods because vehicles must navigate damaged roads.
Moreover, businesses face higher logistics costs, while communities with poor connectivity can remain cut off from markets, schools, healthcare and economic opportunities.
However, the scale of the problem goes deeper and beyond just roads. Ghana’s once-important railway network has suffered an extraordinary decline. From 947 kilometres of operational rail in 1960, the network had fallen to just 160 kilometres by 2020. Even more telling is the decline in population access to rail services, from nearly 30% in 1960 to less than 1% by 2020.
This near collapse has left Ghana overwhelmingly dependent on roads for moving people and goods, putting additional pressure on an already overstretched road network.
But the World Bank says Ghana’s transport challenge is not simply about broken roads or missing railway lines. The sector is also hampered by fragmented institutional responsibilities, making it difficult to coordinate planning, investment and execution effectively.
This situation has resulted in an enormous economic cost for the country. According to the World Bank, road safety incidents alone cost Ghana an estimated 2.1% of GDP every year, equivalent to approximately US$4.55 billion.
The annual economic cost of road safety incidents is reportedly larger than Ghana’s entire national education budget. In other words, the country is not merely losing lives and livelihoods on its roads; it is losing economic resources that could otherwise finance schools, infrastructure and other development priorities.
The World Bank believes fixing the problem will require more than building new roads. Its 10th Ghana Economic Update identifies six priorities for transforming the sector.
It calls for making the Road Maintenance Trust Fund operational; developing a unified National Transport Sector Strategy; revitalising freight-led rail along the Western and Eastern corridors; treating road safety as both a fiscal and public health emergency; introducing climate-resilient standards into major infrastructure investments; and expanding Ghana’s digital single window to Takoradi and inland terminals.
Moreover, through the Ghana Market Access and Connectivity Project, it is investing US$500 million to rehabilitate about 1,050 kilometres of feeder roads through performance-based maintenance contracts.
The focus is particularly on areas where poor connectivity is constraining agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods.
