The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has begun rolling out a digital onboarding platform to regulate commercial transport operations, in a move aimed at ending years of weak oversight that have contributed to traffic congestion, fare exploitation and poor enforcement.
Mr Henry Asomani, Deputy Director of Planning and Programmes at the NRSA, said the system would allow the Authority to formally register transport unions, onboard their vehicles and drivers, and improve accountability across the public transport sector.
Mr Asomani explained that the lack of effective regulation in the past had enabled some commercial drivers to operate outside recognised stations and unions, resulting in indiscriminate parking, traffic obstruction and the charging of excessive fares.
He noted that although the law, Legislative Instrument (LI) 2180, requires all commercial drivers to belong to a recognised transport union, enforcement had been difficult because the sector had largely been self-regulated.
“For a long time, when drivers were apprehended, it was difficult to identify which union they belonged to, as no union took responsibility for them,” he said.
Mr Asomani said government’s decision to designate the NRSA as the regulator of commercial transport marked a major shift in addressing these longstanding challenges.
He explained that while the NRSA was given the regulatory mandate in 2019 and the Legislative Instrument was passed in 2022, meaningful regulation had only recently begun with the introduction of the digital platform.
According to him, the Authority is currently registering transport unions nationwide and has already made significant progress, with most unions captured on the system.
He said the next phase would require the unions themselves to onboard their vehicles and drivers onto the platform, a step that would allow both the NRSA and the unions to easily trace operators in cases of complaints, crashes or traffic violations.
“If anything happens, we can simply retrieve the vehicle or driver details and immediately know where the person is coming from,” he said.
Mr Asomani warned that commercial drivers operating without belonging to a recognised union would be prosecuted once enforcement begins, as such activities would be considered illegal.
He acknowledged challenges with technology and human capacity at the union level but said substantial progress had been made.
He noted that the platform would give unions visibility over their vehicles while granting the NRSA full oversight of all commercial vehicles on the roads, improving monitoring and enforcement.
The system, he added, would also enhance driver discipline, as reports of reckless driving could be traced to specific drivers and vehicles, who would then be referred to their unions for corrective action.
Mr Asomani said the onboarding process would be implemented in phases, starting with long-distance and intercity buses, which pose higher risks due to their large passenger capacity and frequent use of highways.
He expressed confidence that although full implementation would take time due to the size of the sector, the digital system would ultimately bring order, improve road safety and strengthen regulation within Ghana’s commercial transport industry.
