Project: Ghana Priorities Project

The Ghana Priorities Project, which is run out of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, attempts to identify and promote effective interventions to address Ghana’s development challenges. Limestone has been hired to conduct two analyses as part of the Ghana Priorities Project.

Places like Accra, the capital of Ghana, are facing high rates of population growth and motorization, with a public transport system unequipped to handle the demand for transport. This has led to increased congestion and longer travel times. The first analysis by Limestone looked to identify the most pressing needs of the urban transport system in Accra and how they might be improved. The results showed that there is a need for investment into infrastructure, urban planning, and an improved public transport system. The costs and benefits of implementing a Bus Rapid Transport system were then calculated in order to determine the feasibility of improving public transport in Accra. 

A second analysis was completed with the objective of determining the benefit-cost ratio of investing in improving transport on Volta Lake. Currently, almost all cargo transport travelling through Ghana is carried by transport trucks. This is associated with high vehicle transport costs, increased need for maintenance on these roads, and increased carbon emissions. The transport system on Volta Lake would include a cargo ship route for North-South transport as well as ferries for passenger travel at high-demand crossings. This would create a substitute route for the cargo to travel to the North, which would reduce vehicle transportation costs, road maintenance costs, and carbon emissions. The results of this analysis showed that investment in the Volta Lake transportation system was a feasible solution to cargo and passenger transport in Ghana, with the benefits of the project outweighing the costs.