The ‘Big Push’ infrastructure initiative has received intense scrutiny in recent weeks. The NDC government promised in its manifesto to spend US$10 billion on infrastructure projects within four years.
President H.E. John Mahama assured Ghanaians that this initiative would be financed solely from internally generated funds.
On the 12 July 2025, when the president met the members of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), he said “The primary sources of funding for this significant policy initiative would be petroleum revenue and minerals royalties.”
It is this identification of funding source by the president that prompted INSTEPR to examine these revenues as reported by Bank of Ghana’s GPF semi-annual reports and MIIF annual revenue from royalties.
Some numbers to put this claim into perspective. The total petroleum revenue from 2011 to date (15years) is US$ 11.58 billion. Let that sink in for a moment.
Yearly petroleum revenue is divided among GNPC, Consolidated Fund/ABFA, and Ghana Petroleum Funds. Under the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) only the amounts that accrue to the consolidated fund/ABFA can be used by the government for infrastructure projects.
Total petroleum revenue for 2025 was US$770.27 million. Out of that amount, only US$433,291,808.71 million was paid to the consolidated fund/ABFA.
For mineral royalties in 2025, MIIF received a record GHc5.43 billion (equivalent to US$517,142,857 at a fixed rate of 10.5). The law has been amended to transfer 80% of MIIF’s revenue to the consolidated fund for infrastructure projects. A total of US$ 413.7 million would therefore be sent to the consolidated fund in 2025.
The actual revenues collected for the Big Push in 2025 are as follows:
- Petroleum Revenue: US$433.2 million
- Mineral Royalties: US$413.7 million
The two primary sources of revenue for the Big Push generated only US$846.9 million in 2025. At that rate, it would take the Government of Ghana over 11 years to fund the US$10 billion Big Push initiative.
The NDC government is awarding contracts that cannot be paid for within the four years of H.E John Mahama’s presidency. The roads minister informed the country that over US$7 billion worth of contracts were given out on single sourced contracts because of urgency. These roads under the big push are to be completed by end of 2027.
INSTEPR would like to ask the following questions:
- The initial GHc46 billion allocated in 2025,2026 budget which is equivalent to US$4.4 billion ($1@ 10.5¢). How is this being funded?
- When the urgent 81 contracts are completed in 2027, how will government raise over US$3 billion in 2027 to pay the contractors?
The numbers do not add up. We must interrogate this policy further to determine whether the President’s claim that the big push will be funded without borrowing is true or false. From the analysis and all the revenue data available to us, the only way to pay for the big push is through debt, if all contractors are to be paid for work done at the end of 2027.
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Source:
www.myjoyonline.com
