Accra, Feb. 17, GNA - The Ministry of Road and Transport has reached a Facilitation arrangement with ECON- VILLAGE Group of USA for local Ghanaian road contractors to acquire rehabilitated construction equipments and plants on hire purchase basis.

This is part of the arrangement by the Ministry of Road and Transport and the Department of Feeder Roads programme to use part of the funds under the HIPC benefit and Department for International Development (DFID) and Programme to equip Ghanaian road contractors.

This was disclosed by Mr John Osei Asamoah, Chief Director of Ministry of Road and Transport on Thursday at the handing over of construction equipment from ECON VILLAGE of USA to MESSRS BLASIE in Accra.

ECO-VILLAGE, as part of part of the arrangement with the Ministry is to set up training programmes and after sales service facility in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale.

Mr. Osei Asamoah, said the Ministry realised that the equipment capacity holding of local road contractors was inadequate.

He urged road contractors to take advantage of the facility to equip themselves and train their mechanics to improve upon their performance.

"It is my hope that our local contractors would take good care of the equipment to enable them to handle the jobs awarded to them efficiently and to specifications," he said.

He said that it was unfortunate that most local contractors were unable to acquire new equipment because of their liquidity constraints and that with the arrangement reached by the Ministry, local contractors could compete with foreign contractors.

Mr. Asamoah reminded the beneficiaries of the equipment to make adequate arrangement to pay for the equipment so that other contractors could also benefit from the facility.

Mr. Elias Zewde, President of ECON-VILLAGE group said his company was committed to helping Ghanaian road contractors to acquire dependable and cost-effective used road equipment to construct Ghana's road system. He said with this arrangement, local contractors would be able to maintain quality used equipment to grow their business and be able to take on different construction project because the time has come for local contractors to compete with their foreign counterparts.