A major political and technical dispute has emerged in Ghana over the redesign of the Suame Interchange project in Kumasi, pitting the Minister for Roads and Highways, Governs Kwame Agbodza, against his predecessor, Francis Asenso-Boakye, and the NPP Ashanti Caucus in Parliament.

The controversy centres on the government’s decision to scale down the interchange from an original four-tier design to a two-tier configuration, a move the Minister has defended as pragmatic and fiscally responsible but which the Caucus has condemned as flawed and unsound.

Agbodza has strongly justified the modification, arguing that the original four-tier plan was financially and logistically unrealistic due to unresolved land expropriation and compensation issues inherited from the previous administration. He disclosed that the fourth tier would have affected major commercial and public properties, including multi-storey buildings, the Suame Police Station, and portions of Garden City Mall land, with compensation costs projected to exceed 50 percent of the construction budget.

He also criticised what he described as misplaced priorities, citing over $100 million spent on the National Cathedral, funds he argued could have financed a substantial portion of the interchange.

According to the Minister, utility relocation and compensation were not fully accounted for in the original budget, making the design unsustainable amid Ghana’s economic constraints and IMF programme, stressing that cost, not functionality, was the primary challenge.

The Minister further contended that new road infrastructure, particularly the Kumasi Outer Ring Road under the Big Push Programme, has reduced the need for a four-tier interchange by diverting long-distance traffic away from the city centre.

He said the redesigned interchange, alongside complementary works such as the Abusuakuruwa–Akom road rehabilitation, would still deliver an efficient transport network for Kumasi, with funds from the cancelled fourth tier redirected to extend the N10 road.

However, the Ashanti Caucus, led by Asenso-Boakye, has fiercely opposed the decision, insisting the scale-down undermines the project’s long-term capacity and warning that it risks creating future congestion in one of Kumasi’s busiest transport corridors.