By Celestine Avi
Japan has reaffirmed its strong interest in supporting the construction of a bridge over the Volta Lake at Volivo—an essential component of Ghana’s Eastern Corridor road project.
The commitment was conveyed by Miyazaki Katsura, Senior Executive Vice President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), during a courtesy call on President John Mahama at the Presidency on Tuesday.
The proposed Volivo Bridge is one of the flagship projects under President Mahama’s $10 billion “Big Push” initiative, which aims to transform Ghana’s infrastructure through annual investments of $2 billion over five years in critical areas such as roads, bridges, education, and healthcare.
“We are pleased that the Volivo Bridge is featured in the Big Push initiative,” Katsura said, assuring President Mahama of JICA’s readiness to advance discussions with the Japanese government. He added that a technical team would be dispatched to Ghana to assess the additional funding required.
President Mahama first secured Japan’s commitment to the project during a previous official visit to Tokyo in his earlier term as President.
He has also accepted an invitation to attend the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in August, where he intends to engage further with Japanese authorities to secure the necessary financing for the project.
