The 'Big Push' Strategy: Why Ghana Must Mobilise Military Engineers for National Infrastructure

Ghana stands at a critical infrastructure crossroads. The extensive delays, recurring funding disputes, and prolonged legal gridlocks that have historically slowed vital national arteries—such as the multi-lane Ofankor-Nsawam road project—clearly signal that our traditional approach to public civil works requires an urgent, structural shift. We can no longer afford to let vital economic corridors languish for years while trade slows down, commuters suffer, and national productivity drops.

To break this cycle, the Government of Ghana must look inward and deploy one of its most disciplined, underutilised strategic assets: the Ghana Armed Forces’ Field Engineers Regiment and Sappers. By moving military engineers from tactical reserve duties directly into the frontline of the national "Big Push" infrastructure agenda, the state can introduce unprecedented speed, cost efficiency, and operational discipline into public construction. This is not a militarisation of civilian life; it is a calculated, highly effective global strategy designed to protect public funds, bypass commercial gridlock, and accelerate national development.

Operational Mechanics: The Fleet and the Framework

Transitioning the Field Engineers Regiment into a frontline civil construction force requires more than a policy shift; it demands a deliberate capital investment paired with an unshakeable administrative structure.

• The Heavy-Tier Capital Investment: To match the capacity of a Tier-1 international contractor, the state must invest an estimated $45 million to $60 million to equip the regiment with heavy-tier industrial fleet assets. This includes a baseline fleet of 8 heavy crawler excavators (such as the Caterpillar 349 class) for deep foundation work, 6 large 300+ horsepower bulldozers for rapid land clearing, 25 articulated dump trucks to sustain continuous round-the-clock earthworks, and a dedicated mobile asphalt batching plant capable of churning out 240 tonnes of material per hour.
• Sustaining the Fleet: Operating this infrastructure engine requires moving away from standard military mileage budgeting and adopting an hourly operational budget. To run this heavy machinery effectively for 2,500 site hours annually, the state must secure an annual operational budget of $8.8 million to $12.4 million. This fund explicitly allocates roughly 50% for bulk diesel and high-performance lubricants, 25% for rapid-wear parts like grader blades and excavator bucket teeth, and a dedicated 15% component lifecycle overhaul fund to ensure machinery is completely rebuilt rather than left to rust.
• The Joint Military-Civilian Shield: To ensure military engineers are never halted by the bureaucracy of utility relocation or land disputes, operations must run under a Joint Project Management Unit (J-PMU). While the Military Directorate commands 24/7 physical construction and site logistics, a parallel Civilian Directorate—comprising the Ghana Highway Authority, Lands Commission, and utility providers—acts as a legal and financial shield. This civilian arm resolves land compensation claims via escrow accounts and coordinates direct-billed utility trenching before the bulldozers arrive, allowing the regiment to sustain momentum without legal delays.

Legislative Amendments for Military Legal Clearance

To allow the Field Engineers Regiment to legally act as a primary contractor on public roads without violating procurement laws or facing lawsuits, parliament must amend two key pieces of legislation:

• Amendment to the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) Act, 1997 (Act 540): Section 12 of Act 540 grants the GHA exclusive responsibility for the administration, control, development, and maintenance of trunk roads. Parliament must insert a "National Strategic Infrastructure Clause." This amendment will legally empower the Minister of Roads and Highways, in consultation with the Minister of Defence, to directly bypass competitive bidding and declare any critical economic corridor a "National Strategic Infrastructure Project." This designation automatically assigns the project to the military engineering corps.
• Amendment to the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663): Sections 39 and 40 of Act 663 restrict single-source procurement to extreme emergencies or unique technical capacities. The law must be amended to include "National Security and Defense Infrastructure Delivery" as a legal justification for direct single-source allocation. This ensures that assigning multi-million dollar road contracts to the military is fully compliant with national procurement laws, protecting the Ministry of Roads from legal challenges by private contractor associations.

Top 3 Critical Highway Corridors for the Military Model

If equipped, the Field Engineers Regiment should be deployed immediately to three high-congestion, economically vital trade corridors that frequently suffer from contractor delays:

• The Eastern Corridor Highway (Asikuma - Juapong - Hohoe - Yendi - Kulungugu): This route is Ghana's most strategic alternative link to the north, bypassing the central spine of the country. Parts of this corridor have been abandoned by multiple private contractors due to erratic payment certificates. The military’s capacity for rapid mobilization and independent logistics makes them perfect for sealing this broken trade route.
• The Accra-Takoradi Coastal Highway (N1 Corridor Bypass Sections): The expansion of the N1 highway—specifically the sections around Buduburam, Winneba Junction, and Mankessim—suffers from severe commuter gridlock and slow utility relocation. Deploying the military under a J-PMU framework would allow for 24/7 construction, breaking the transit bottleneck between Accra and the western industrial ports.
• The Kumasi-Anwiankwanta-Obuasi Highway: This corridor handles heavy mining freight, timber, and agricultural transport, resulting in rapid road deterioration. The military can apply rigid, high-durability concrete pavement engineering to this sector, creating a long-lasting road surface that resists heavy axle loads.

Structuring a Barter-Transaction Fleet Acquisition

To avoid worsening Ghana's sovereign debt or requiring immediate cash from the Consolidated Fund, the $45M to $60M heavy machinery fleet can be acquired using a structured commodity-backed barter framework:

• The Commodity Escrow Setup: COCOBOD (for cocoa beans) or GIADEC (for integrated bauxite) enters an agreement with a bilateral state partner or an industrial equipment financier. Ghana ring-fences a specific, minor allocation of future off-take commodities (e.g., a set tonnage of processed bauxite or cocoa premium beans) to be delivered over a 5-to-7-year period.
• Direct Manufacturer Settlement: The financier issues a direct, non-cash line of credit worth $60 million directly to heavy equipment manufacturers (such as Caterpillar, Komatsu, or Volvo). Not a single dollar passes through the central government budget, eliminating bureaucratic diversion risks.
• Fleet Delivery and Sovereign Grace: The manufacturers ship the complete civil engineering fleet directly to the Armed Forces. Repayment begins only after the fleet is active on Ghanaian soil, funded completely by the commodity off-take space, leaving national cash reserves untouched.

Integrating Seized "Galamsey" Equipment into the Fleet

Handing over seized illegal mining (galamsey) machinery to the military is a highly practical way to cut equipment procurement costs, provided a strict legal and technical framework is followed:

• The Legal Pathway (Civil Forfeiture): Under the Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2019 (Act 995), any equipment seized during illegal mining operations is automatically forfeited to the state. To safely integrate these assets, the High Court must issue expedited final asset forfeiture orders. This gives the Ministry of Defence clear ownership and protects the military from future lawsuits by former operators.
• The Technical Vetting Process: While galamsey operators use heavy excavators (often 20-to-30-tonne class) and water pumps, much of this equipment is poorly maintained. The regiment must set up a specialized diagnostic depot at the Base Workshop in Burma Camp. Here, engineers can strip, repair, and paint usable excavators into military engineering colors.
• Role Allocation: Seized excavators are perfect for bulk earthmoving, drainage clearing, and embankment cutting. However, specialized road equipment—like dual-grade asphalt pavers, 25-tonne pneumatic rollers, and 240-tonne batching plants—cannot be recovered from mining sites and must still be acquired new through the barter model.

Global Precedents: A Proven Blueprint

Deploying military engineering corps for massive public works is a highly successful, time-tested strategy used by some of the world's most robust economies:

• The United States Model: The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) operates as one of America's largest public engineering agencies, managing hundreds of civilian dams, canals, and flood control systems that underpin the entire North American commercial supply chain.
• The Asian Corridor Success: In Bangladesh, the Army Corps of Engineers is routinely trusted with high-risk arterial corridors, having successfully conquered extreme terrain to construct the vital 80-kilometre Cox’s Bazar Marine Drive.
• The Indian High-Altitude Feat: India’s Border Roads Organisation (BRO), staffed directly by military engineers, constructs and maintains thousands of kilometres of all-weather highways and strategic tunnels through the most volatile, high-altitude zones of the Himalayas where private corporations cannot operate.

Strategic Recommendations for Ghana

To successfully operationalise this vision for future "Big Push" projects across our regions, the government should adopt the following actionable steps:

• Establish a National Military Infrastructure Mandate: Formally designate the Field Engineers Regiment as a primary contractor for critical, high-congestion national trade corridors, guaranteeing them a baseline percentage of all capital infrastructure projects.
• Launch a Dedicated Heavy Equipment Academy: Build an internal military training pipeline to convert regiment personnel into certified, high-precision heavy machinery operators, eliminating reliance on the scarce and highly competitive civilian operator pool.
• Create a Ring-Fenced Equipment Procurement Pathway: Acquire the necessary $60 million industrial fleet through direct bilateral government-to-government concessional loans or supplier-credit pathways, ensuring the acquisition does not add high-interest commercial debt to the national balance sheet.
• Institutionalise the J-PMU Framework: Pass statutory regulations that make the Joint Military-Civilian Project Management Unit the mandatory administrative blueprint for any public project involving military engineers, legally separating physical construction from civil litigation.

The future of Ghana’s economic independence relies heavily on the strength, speed, and durability of its internal transport networks. Continuing to rely solely on traditional procurement routes—which are frequently vulnerable to corporate profit halts, funding delays, and extended stagnation—is a luxury our developing economy can no longer afford. Mobilising the Field Engineers Regiment and Sappers offers a bold, disciplined path forward. By backing our military's patriotism and precision with industrial-grade heavy machinery and a solid legal framework, Ghana can construct a superior, cost-effective road network. It is time to equip our engineers, fund the fleet, and let the military spearhead the construction of the resilient infrastructure our nation rightfully deserves.

✍️ Retired Senior Citizen
For and on behalf of all Senior Citizens of the Republic of Ghana 🇬🇭

Teshie-Nungua
akpaluck@gmail.com

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