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The Governing Council of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Ghana has called for the immediate establishment of a road transport regulatory agency that will bring sanity into the urban and public transport system.

According to the institute, such an agency would, among other things, regulate and monitor the activities of drivers, vehicle owners and transport companies in the country.

Speaking on behalf of CILT Ghana, its President, Dr Ebo Hammond, said there was currently no particular agency clothed with the legal mandate to perform such a function or role.

The establishment of such an agency, he added, would reduce road crashes which had become a national canker.

Dr Hammond was speaking to the Daily Graphic when the institute presented a policy advice on how to accelerate development in the transport sector — road, aviation and maritime — to the Minister of Transport, Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, in Accra.

The council also used the opportunity to congratulate Mr Asiamah on his reappointment as the sector minister.

Explaining further, Dr Hammond said the functions of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the Motor Traffic and Transport Directorate (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service were limited in scope and could not take up such a role unless they were empowered to do so.

“The DVLA takes care of the driver and the vehicle sides, while the MTTD takes care of enforcement. But as it stands now, there is no agency that takes care of who registers and monitors the transport companies and vehicles on our roads, so people do what they like.

“Nobody checks whether or not these transport companies receive any kind of continuous training every year, the kind of qualification the people managing the transport companies have. People go into the sector just because they see it as just business, so the right things are not done from the start, and that is why we have these accidents always,” he added.

Assistance 

Dr Hammond affirmed the institute’s commitment to offer the needed assistance in the area when it was called upon to do so.

He called for the speeding up of the establishment of a national carrier which would help promote tourism, investment and international trade.

“The government must ensure the completion of the Sunyani Airport to help facilitate travels to the mid-west of the country. The Tamale Airport needs an upgrade of its facilities, especially landside, to convert it into an international airport to help serve those in the northern regions and neighbouring Sahelian countries. It can also serve as an aircraft maintenance centre for the country and West Africa,” he said.

On maritime, Dr Hammond said there was the need for the government to come up with a policy designed to attract cargo traffic to the Takoradi Port, making it competitive in the sub-region, adding that there was also the need to explore and tap the potential of the Volta Lake for freight transport and ecotourism.

The president reiterated CILT Ghana’s position on whether or not the nation should accept motorcycles for commercial purposes, popularly referred to as Okada.

“Parliament must not amend Regulation 128 of Legislative Instrument (LI) 2180 (2012) to allow the use of motorcycles for commercial purposes. It must rather invest in rural transport, which is safe and affordable,” he said.

Relationship

Responding to the call by CILT Ghana, Mr Asiamah said the ministry was working on an LI to empower the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) to perform such functions.  

He indicated that the ministry had built a good relationship with CILT Ghana, had always been collaborative in the sector and would continue to build on the relationship.

Although Mr Asiamah admitted that there were institutional challenges in the transport sector, he explained that the government was working to deal with them, stressing that more would be done to enforce road safety regulations.

He, therefore, appealed to the institute and other professional bodies to continue to intensify education on road crashes.

He added that work was far advanced for the establishment of a national carrier, as three companies were currently under consideration and undergoing the necessary verifications.

He added that “the Kumasi Airport project will also end, hopefully, by the first quarter of next year”.