The increase in motorization coupled with low investments in other modes of transportation, such as railways and water-borne transport has made road transport notorious for traffic crashes and the resulting increase in fatalities and injuries, the Hon. Minister for Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, has said.

He noted that about half of the continent's population was anticipated to live in urban areas by 2030, signaling rapid urbanization of the continent, and added that statistics from the Africa Transport Policy Programme showed that six lives were lost daily per 100,000 persons in Africa, which equated to 650 fatalities per day, with the vulnerable road users like motorcyclists, pedestrians, and cyclists accounting for nearly half of it.

“The socioeconomic effects of traffic accidents and related injuries not only hindered the development of the continent but also had a negative impact on the livelihood of many families”, he added.

The Minister made these remarks when he joined the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety Regional Partner Meeting for Africa to open their three-day conference on Road Safety.

The Minister stated that Africa could only change the worrying fatality statistics if we recognized the shared and collective responsibilities of stakeholders and equipped them with the needed resources both technical and financial to implement best practice interventions that reduce traffic crashes and save lives. He added that Africa needed to take steps to bring the different sectors together to overcome road safety challenges by Governments and stakeholders strategizing to form alliances to address the canker on the Continent.

“I am therefore happy to note the worthy alliance of Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety not only in Ghana but with other selected countries in Africa and across the globe. I am also happy to note that the partnership with Bloomberg has resulted in many strategic interventions aimed at saving lives on the continent”, he reiterated.

Hon. Ofori Asiamah further stated that the alliance and interventions of the Bloomberg Initiatives like strengthening National legislations and enhancing data collection and surveillance, among others, had contributed positively to the road safety discourse in Ghana which had also helped in the reduction of road traffic crashes to about 20% as recorded for 2021.

He mentioned that safer roads, vehicles and efficient mobility systems had a direct impact on every economy and Ghana acknowledging that fact, had introduced a number of interventions aimed at promoting an efficient movement of goods and people while ensuring that road traffic crashes, related injuries and fatalities were reduced to the barest minimum.

“We have strengthened the capacity of our lead road safety Agency with an enhanced mandate to enable it to ensure institutional compliance. This means that while the lead Agency works to promote road safety through raising public awareness, the Agency will also work to ensure that institutions tasked to carry out specific activities that have an impact on road safety are held accountable”, he added.

The Minister revealed that Ghana was reviewing our road traffic laws to address some identified implementation challenges and reflect changes and emerging trends in the road transport industry. That notwithstanding, he made it known that, Ghana was implementing our 3^rd Strategy for road safety management dubbed the National Road Safety Strategy IV (2021- 2030). This strategy he added, was in line with the UN’s 2^nd Decade of Action for Road Safety which had the ultimate goal of reducing fatalities and injuries by 50% by the end of 2030.

Hon. Ofori Asiamah said a set of Action Plans that will see to the implementation of the strategy had been developed to ensure Ghana was able to track progress and report on same. “The effective implementation of these actions will require collaboration, cooperation, technical and financial support. I believe other partner countries have also developed similar strategies towards the common goal of halving traffic fatalities”, the Minister noted.

He encouraged participants at the meeting to share information on their experiences and lessons learnt in their respective cities to help them identify issues that were peculiar across the board and develop a common strategy to address them. He mentioned that it was important that Africa strengthened its partnership with strategic partners in the area of Technology, data management, traffic laws enforcement practices and post-crash care since effective road safety management could not be achieved without credible data or information.

The Minister called on Countries that had not yet developed a Road Accidents Data Management Systems (RADMS) like Ghana had, to seek assistance from the Bloomberg Initiative in developing one.

The Minister for Transport recognized the contributions of Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety and thanked them for choosing Ghana as the host country for the first Regional Partner Meeting, urging all participants representing their Countries to make rich input into the various sessions to inform the way forward for Africa on Road Safety issues.