President John Dramani Mahama’s proposal to introduce a fully automated road toll collection system risks falling short of its revenue targets, as new data suggests a significant portion of the population, particularly in rural areas, remain outside the country’s active mobile money and formal banking ecosystem.
The initiative, outlined in the 2025 Economic Policy and Budget Statement, aims to replace traditional tollbooths with a digital billing system that links each vehicle to its owner’s Ghana Card. Charges would be deducted directly from the owner’s mobile money wallet or bank account, effectively eliminating the need for toll gates.
“We said in the budget that we were going to reintroduce road tolls, and so they’ve been talking about what the modalities should be and all that. But the good thing today is every car is linked to the owner’s Ghana card, and so we don’t need to have the old toll gates and those cards that you stand and open and all that,” the President said.
However, the success of this system hinges on widespread digital financial inclusion, which current data suggests is still lacking. According to the Bank of Ghana’s April 2025 report, there are 75 million registered mobile money accounts in the country. But only 24 million of those are active, representing just under one-third of total registrations. The figures remain largely unchanged from March 2025, underscoring a persistent gap between registration and usage.
This disparity raises questions about the plan’s short-term viability, especially in rural regions where digital literacy and access to financial infrastructure remain limited. Many vehicle owners in these areas do not have functioning mobile money wallets or bank accounts, which could hinder their ability to comply with the new toll system and reduce the government’s expected revenue intake.
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In practice, the plan could create a two-tier system, where digitally-connected urban drivers are automatically billed, while rural drivers either evade tolls entirely or are excluded from major road networks.
While the vision is modern and necessary, the infrastructure and financial behavior aren’t quite there yet. With over two-thirds of mobile money accounts dormant, there is an essentially need in building a system for all of the population.
The government has yet to release specific revenue projections tied to the automated toll initiative, the Ministry of Roads and Highways previously estimated that reinstating tolls could generate hundreds of millions of cedis annually. The reliance on a digital-only model could complicate those forecasts, if the large difference in the fintech inclusivity remans.
It remains unclear what fallback mechanisms the government may put in place to address users without active digital accounts, however, a hybrid system could help bridge the transition, combining digital billing in urban centers with simplified manual payments in low-connectivity regions.
For now, Mahama’s administration faces the challenge of aligning its digital ambitions with on-the-ground realities, ensuring the drive toward automation does not come at the cost of equitable access or revenue efficiency.
