The new Accra–Tema Motorway keeps Nkrumah's concrete in the middle. The toll is still unknown

The 10-lane rebuild is 53 percent done after 805 days. The four concrete lanes of the 1965 motorway become the express road; the toll rate has not been set.

53%

complete after 805 days. The toll has not been set

By QMS Newsroom29 Oct 2026, 16:10 GMT1 min read

The rebuild of the Accra–Tema Motorway is 53 percent complete after 805 days, the project company told journalists on a site tour on Wednesday. It said the first section, from Tema to Tetteh Quarshie, is slightly behind schedule because water pipes and fibre cables under the road had to be moved first. The deadline is August 2027.

Ten lanes

The new road has ten lanes. The four concrete lanes in the middle are the original motorway, opened under President Kwame Nkrumah's government in November 1965, and will become an express road from Tetteh Quarshie to Tema with no exits in between. Six new asphalt lanes, three each side, will serve entries and exits such as Community 18 and the Teshie link. The project team told The1957News that building it all in concrete would raise the cost, and the toll.

Two governments

In December 2020, President Akufo-Addo's government signed a $570 million contract with Portugal's Mota-Engil. The NDC Minority, including Kwame Governs Agbodza, demanded it be cancelled. In November 2021 the government scrapped road tolls. In December 2023 Parliament approved a 30-year concession of about $339 million through the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund, with the Ghanaian firm Maripoma Enterprise as builder. Akufo-Addo cut the sod in August 2024.

President Mahama's government kept the project and the contractor. Agbodza, now Roads Minister, said in March 2026 that Maripoma's work was no worse than that of any contractor "from Germany or Britain, China".

The toll

The motorway is a toll road under the concession, but the rate has not been set and must go to Parliament. In July 2026 Parliament approved a new electronic toll system for 66 points nationwide. Official figures for the total cost have ranged from $339 million to $700 million.