Kwame Nkrumah Interchange - Who gains and who loses?
Ghana’s economy is changing and so is the infrastructure. From the Airport City to the Mallam Interchange both in Accra, old, defaced and dusty buildings, slums and roads are fast giving way to beautiful skyscrapers, gated apartments and a variety of flyovers and interchanges.
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Just like the economy, the face-lifting of the capital is not a one day event; it is a progress that has taken years to shape up and will take many more years to become more impressive.
The latest addition to this modest but consistent development of the capital is the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange which was inaugurated a few weeks ago.
Thanks to the €74 million project, commuters along that stretch of the capital will no longer have a wrong impression about the city as one engulfed in filth and smelly drains.
The monster traffic, which was associated with the then Kwame Nkrumah Circle, could now become a thing of the past. This could mean that commuters on that part of Accra will now heave a sigh of relief.
As the biggest interchange in West Africa, the facility, which is in honour of the country’s first president, surely adds to Ghana’s image as a gateway to the sub region.
The presence of ancillary facilities such as a police station, mini clinic for emergency cases, fire service post and a modern lorry park also adds convenience to road users.
Dr Nkrumah’s statue at the place has added more colour to the edifice. The statue invokes the memory of the Pan- Africanist, who turned Accra into the mecca of nationalism during the period of the nationalist struggle.
All in all, the project is a beautiful piece of work that adds to the country’s skyline, eases traffic and saves the country some money: it is estimated that traffic that used to build up on that stretch of the city cost the country $100 million per annum.
But like every action, not everybody is better off as a result of the project.
One of them is Mr Thomas Asante.
Thomas, who has been trading at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle since 1998, said the promise of finding them sheds to continue with their business had not been fulfilled.
He told the Daily Graphic that unlike the drivers, who have had a fitting space to continue their businesses, traders had been asked not to return to the place to continue their trade.
As a result, the father of three is now unable to cater for his family.
On compensation, he said he was given only GH¢150, an amount he described as “too meagre,” especially when compared to the GH¢1,000 that was claimed to have been given to some of his colleagues.
Another person who is not happy about the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange is Ms Gifty Agyeman, who said she was fined GH50 on the day the facility was inaugurated.
“I had a container here where I sold all types of body skin care products. I was compensated with only GH¢60. I was hoping to get back to business after the completion of the project but that seems not to be the case,” the obviously distraught trader noted.
Although Ms Mercy Adumako admitted that the construction of the interchange had brightened the place and reduced the number of miscreants who used to attack people at the least opportunity in the night, she said the city authorities had now denied them access to the place to hawk.
She said the AMA taskforce and sometimes military taskforce kept driving them away from selling at any distance close to the interchange, a development she described as worrying.
As a result of the constant harassment by city authorities, she said she and her colleagues had devised a new strategy of selling after 10pm, when all the AMA taskforce would have retired. That, she said, had affected daily sales.
A sachet water seller, who gave her name as Hannah, said petty traders like her were also no longer allowed into the bus terminals to sell.
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She said defaulters were often fined GH¢20 and above and some unlucky ones had their products confiscated.
Juxtaposing the economic benefits the construction of the interchange has brought and the tales of the people who used to sell at the place, it appears it has been a win-lose outcome for road users and traders who used to get their daily bread from there.