The first phase of the project will begin in early 2011 with an initial investment of $1.9 billion, and the second phase will start later in the year, Ghana's Finance Ministry said in a statement on its website.

Ghana President John Atta Mills signed a loan agreement with China's Exim Bank and the Chinese Development Bank in September totaling nearly $13 billion -- one of China's largest financial commitments in Africa to date. Ghana's government said the total agreed loan facility will be drawn down gradually as projects arise, with terms set on a project-by-project basis.

No details on the terms of the $2.85 billion loan for road improvement were immediately available.

China has expanded its presence across the resource-rich continent in recent years as it seeks to lock up long-term energy and commodities supplies to fuel its break-neck growth.

Ghana is Africa's second-largest gold miner, a major cocoa producer, and due to become a commercial oil exporter after its offshore Jubilee field comes on line later this year.

The International Monetary Fund said last month that the loan deal was good for Ghana and does not contravene any debt limitation conventions with the body.

Ghana is poised to grow faster than any other country on the continent in 2011 and is eager to use its looming oil wealth to transform its aid dependent economy.

But the IMF has warned that Ghana's oil revenues may initially only barely cover the costs of its recently agreed public sector wage hike.