Bawumia proposes binding national infrastructure plans
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on 3News
Mahamudu Bawumia proposes that Ghanaian parties commit to long-term national infrastructure plans. He cites coastal protection, flood control and public transport in particular, according to 3News, after his meetings in Japan.
The presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP, Ghana's opposition), Mahamudu Bawumia, has called on Ghanaian political parties to sign binding national masterplans for major infrastructure projects, so that they are not abandoned with each change of government. He made the call at the end of his talks in Japan, where he met officials from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the consultancy firms Nippon Koei, CTI Engineering and Oriental Consultants Global, the Ghanaian outlet 3News reports.
According to the former vice-president, infrastructure delivery in Japan relies on multi-year agreements that survive political alternations. "Japan thinks long term. They build a consensus around a plan, then commit to executing it over 30 years. That is a major difference between Japan and Ghana," he said, judging that the absence of cross-party blueprints exposes public works to interruption at the end of each four-year electoral cycle.
Mahamudu Bawumia cited coastal erosion, flood control and public transport as the three priority sectors in which parties should formally approve shared national plans, rather than treating infrastructure as the partisan programme of a single administration. A formal commitment between parties would, in his view, prevent incoming governments from putting the unfinished works of their predecessors on hold and give technical and financial partners long-term visibility.
The proposal comes four days after the publication of a critique by the economist Adu Sarkodie of the sacrificed investments of Ghana's 2026 budget, and a month after the NPP said it was ready to readmit its disgruntled members, on 5 October.
