African cultural practices are a double-edged sword. While some cultural idiosyncrasies and practices in project environments can secure more project successes than merely adopting management theories from Western cultures, the unfiltered application of cultural extremities can be detrimental to economic and social development through public projects in Africa. This study focused on a detailed qualitative case—the Ghana Cocoa Roads Improvement Programme—using an interpretive approach to examine the cultural practices and governance challenges in service-based supply chain project. This project was selected for its unique characteristics, involving 700 different contracts with a total budget of GH₵18.20 billion to enhance a 7054-km road network for better movement of people, goods, and services in cocoa-growing areas. The study reviewed the June 2023 Performance Audit Report on the Construction of Cocoa Roads by the Auditor-General, along with related articles, analysing the dataset with Atlas.ti software using an inductive coding method. The findings reveal that cultural practices, such as poor decision-making practices (e.g., stakeholder exclusion, and lack of transparency), local norms (e.g., favouritism and political influence), and work culture (e.g. neglect of quality standards, low accountability), alongside governance challenges like procurement inefficiencies (e.g., inflated contract costs, non-competitive procurement), and policy and planning gaps (e.g., over-awarding contracts), contributed to poor quality (e.g., defective roads) and project inefficiencies (e.g., large portions of roads remain incomplete, with 5203 km out of 7054 km unfinished as of 2022). The study highlights the critical role that cultural practices and governance challenges play in shaping the outcomes of service-based supply chain projects in Ghana. It underscores the need for a balanced approach that combines cultural sensitivity with robust governance mechanisms for successful service-based supply chain projects in similar contexts, particularly, Africa.