THE TOILS OF TRAVELLING GHANA

By Ryan Millward and Saul Sebag-Montefiore

Travelling to the northern parts of Ghana is extremely rewarding when visiting and touring the country. However, just how easy is it to reach to these remote parts when relying on the roads and transport of what is, fundamentally, a developing country.

Road transport is by far the most dominant carrier of goods and passengers in Ghana’s land transport system. In fact over 95% of all passenger and freight traffic reaches communities over Ghana on road yet the abysmal state of the Nation’s roads is causing the country a series of serious problems:

Firstly, the thousands of unrepaired potholes that litter the Nation’s roads are a major hazard and the cause of hundreds of annual accidents and brake-downs. Drivers swerve wildly to avoid driving into potholes only to find themselves colliding with another car or rolling into a ditch leaving them with a puncture, injured, or worse. There are some parts of the North of Ghana that are so peppered with potholes that you would be excused for thinking that you are driving over the creator ridden surface of the moon.

The time it takes to travel anywhere around Ghana is lengthened significantly, which hinders and limits the tourism industry that would otherwise have so much potential. On a recent trip to the North we spent 35 hours in tro-tro’s to visit only three places – had the condition of the roads been of a higher standard the time of the trip could have, at the very least, been sliced in half. The length of the journey is enough to deter many tourists and locals from travelling around Ghana meaning that the potential business that could be done through tourism is severely restricted.

Jean-Sebastian, a French tourist, commented, ‘I was staying in Cape Coast and travelled up to Mole National Park with the intention of visiting the other towns and regions in the area, for example, Wa or Bolgatanga but the roads were in such a bad state that it was going to take me 9 hours to visit Wa despite it being a similar distance from Tamali to Bolgatanga. I was shocked at the state of the roads and felt so unsafe when driving that I was forced to shut my eyes and pray.’

It is not just the tourists that are limited by the poor roads as many local Ghanaians from the Central Region have never visited the North due to the unreasonable amount of time and stress that it takes to get there.

Paa Kojo of Cape Coast stated, ‘I have always wanted to visit some friends in Tamale but because of my job I rarely get the time to travel and when I do it is a very limited amount of time. I think something drastic has to be done about the roads because it prevents me from seeing my friends and I know of many others who have never had the opportunity to leave Cape Coast throughout the duration of their lives because of the time and effort it takes to get there.’

This is surely an unacceptable situation for Ghana, the most advanced and progressive African Nation to be in. However, the situation looks unlikely to change as the Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr. Nii Okley Quaye Kuma has in the past been forced to concede that the road fund policy can only cater for 60 percent of road maintenances in the country. He said even though the fund got about GHC 1.1 billion in revenue between 2010 and 2011, it cannot cater for the remaining 40 percent. This is an incredibly serious issue that needs to be addressed because the state of the roads is just as harmful to the Ghanaian economy as it is to human life.

However, it is not just the state Ghana’s roads that are creating a health risk for travellers. Trotros, even though they remain incredibly popular for travellers across the country, are a potential death trap with poor quality mechanics and overloading of passengers that make the long journeys a painful and dangerous affair as many accidently commonly occur.

A trotro preparing for battle

It is common fact that a trotro should have, at a maximum, four or five people on a row of seats; however, many trotros now squeeze in 6 people per row as they jot across the pot-hole ridden roads of Northern Ghana. When people are paying good money of between five and fifteen Cedis to ride these vehicles, there really should be a more respectable approach to handling passengers. It is the price that appears to be the problem; when they make a good price for each passenger, the drivers and trotro station workers see money over space and comfort – in such, they aim to cram as many people in as possible and even pick up more along the way. Drivers of Kingdom Transport Services who used to travel to the northern part of Ghana told how they used to pick up passengers at Techiman, Kintampo, and other spots. Leg room, arm room and any room in general is sacrificed in these overheated and overcrowded tros.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if the journeys were short – however the poor quality of the vehicles mean they often slump along at around 20-30 mph as the engines struggle to carry the heavy weight along the dilapidated roads. Historically, many cargo cars have been turned into large trotros and buses by fixing artificial seats in the vehicle; this is the case of the trotro entitled the ‘207’ which has claimed more lives than any other with its poor maintenance and huge number of passengers. There remains a poor constitution of management for these trotros who are rarely, if ever, inspected. It is true that mechanics at Suame Magazine in Kumasi, at Abossey Okai in Accra are doing their best, but their activities must be certified by a higher authority before they are allowed to practice fitting in Ghana. The police are also on hand at regular checkpoints to make sure the vehicles and drivers are fit to carry out their duty; however, many of these police get lazy, particularly in the night as trotros stumble through the check points whilst not being inspected properly.



It is true that the government is struggling to find the funds in its present policy toward road and transport maintenance. However, when you look at the unnecessary dangers and discomforts that are created as a result of shoddy roads and poor transport, it is obvious that this is an issue that the government must pay more attention to and focus more resources on as it is something so central to Ghana’s future success.



An overcrowded tro