President John Mahama has expressed satisfaction in his government’s ability to award at least 95 percent of road contracts in the country to Ghanaians.

Giving himself a pat on the back, the president in an exclusive interview with TV3 New Day, broadcast on Monday, said this is as a result of specific directives he issued.

He indicated that the result fits into his government’s “deliberate policy to give advantage to Ghanaian business”.

“I have given specific directives which are beginning to yield result. For instance, I said that for all road and building construction that is financed from the government of Ghana funds, the majority of those projects should go to Ghanaians,” he pointed out.

“And I am happy that today, 95 percent of contractors working in the road construction sector are Ghanaians. It wasn’t so a few years ago. We had a lot of Asian companies and other companies from all over the world competing with our local contractors.”

The president was also excited that the local contractors have not been disappointing, noting that they are “doing well”.

President Mahama recalled that some few years back there were only six companies in Ghana with asphalt plants and were all foreign owned.

“Today 22 companies have asphalt plants, and of the 22, when you take out the six, the rest are all Ghanaian companies,” he announced.

“And so we are giving effect to the things that we say and that is why evidence-based learning is important to be able to showcase exactly how that is helping to transform things.

“Otherwise, these are things people take for granted and then they don’t realize that there is something going on,” President Mahama emphasised.