The much-discussed 30,000-job projection for the Accra-Kumasi Expressway may be far below the project’s potential employment impact, according to Technical Advisor at the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Theo Acheampong.
Dr Acheampong has defended the government’s projection, arguing that the figure is a conservative estimate when both direct and indirect employment generated by the project are taken into account.
His comments follow a post by Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, who estimated that the expressway project could create about 30,000 direct and indirect jobs.
In a Facebook analysis on Thursday, September 10, 2026, Dr Acheampong explained that the employment impact of major infrastructure projects is not limited to workers physically engaged at construction sites.
“The short answer is yes, and if anything, the figure is conservative,” Dr Acheampong said.
He explained that infrastructure employment is commonly measured in “job-years”, with one person employed full-time for 12 months representing one job-year.
Based on an estimated labour component of between $400 million and $500 million, he projected that direct employment from the expressway could amount to between 38,000 and 48,000 job-years during construction.
Using an annual employment cost of about $10,000, including accommodation, transportation and safety equipment, Dr Acheampong said he had relied on the lower end of the direct employment estimate for his calculations.
Beyond workers directly involved in construction, he said the project would generate additional jobs through the local supply chain, including quarrying, cement production, haulage and catering.
“Every truckload of aggregate from a quarry, every bag of cement, every haulage contract and every caterer is a job created by project spending,” he said.
He estimated that domestic procurement worth between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion could generate another 12,000 to 14,000 job-years in quarrying, cement, haulage and other services.
That, he said, could push the total employment impact to about 50,000 job-years, with a broader plausible range of between 38,000 and 70,000 depending on factors such as the project’s labour component, wage levels and the share of imported materials and equipment.
Dr Acheampong further explained that over the projected 30-month construction period, approximately 20,000 people could be working on the project at any given time.
Because of labour turnover, he said more than 50,000 individuals could potentially earn wages from the project before construction is completed.
He therefore maintained that the government’s 30,000-job projection should not be viewed as inflated.
“So 30,000 is not an exaggeration: it is the floor,” he said.
Dr Acheampong said the economic benefits could continue beyond the construction phase, particularly if the expressway stimulates the development of logistics hubs, industrial parks and greater market access along the corridor.
“By my estimate, every ten percentage points of project spending shifted from imports to Ghanaian suppliers adds roughly 4,000 job-years,” he said.
He called for the construction contracts to include provisions that prioritise local labour and Ghanaian suppliers, as well as apprenticeship opportunities linked to technical and vocational education and training institutions.
He also recommended payroll-based verification of direct employment figures to allow the actual number of jobs created by the project to be independently assessed.
The Accra-Kumasi corridor is one of Ghana’s key transport routes, connecting major economic and commercial centres. The proposed expressway is expected to improve the movement of people and goods between the two cities.
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