Government approves ¢1b for road signs, traffic lights

Pulse Staff 09:40 - 25 March 2019

Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah with NRSC boss May Obiri-Yeboah

The government of Ghana has approved GH¢1 billion to fix traffic lights and erect road signs across the country.

Last year, President Akufo-Addo set up an inter-ministerial committee to probe the increasing rate of accidents in the country.

The Committee recommended that traffic lights be fixed, road signs be erected and defaced road markings painted to improve road safety.

It also recommended that ¢6.5 million be allocated to the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC).

This, the committee, said would be spent on public education and training.

Addressing journalists, Executive Director of the Commission, May Obiri-Yeboah, said their recommendations are already being implemented.

She listed the full recommendations of the committee as follows:

1) Transformation of the National Road Safety Commission (NSRC) to an Authority and budgetary support of ¢6.50 Million for the Commission to scale up public education/sensitization and training,

2) Request for approval of a proposal by the Ghana Police Service to enable the MTTD to:

a) Deploy Traffic Cameras Systems to detect and apprehend speed, red-light and related traffic offences, and

b) Remove disabled vehicles from the road,

3) Request for an amount of ¢1,05 billion for the road agencies, Ghana Highway Authority, Department of Urban Roads and Department of Feeder Roads to clear the backlog of road signs, road-line markings, traffic signal lights and crash barriers on the national road network.

Meanwhile, many people were reported dead on Friday following separate road accidents in two regions.

Both accidents claimed close to 80 lives, with many more sustaining various degrees of injuries following the incident.

The first accident occurred in the early hours of Friday (around 2:00 AM) in the new Bono East region following a head-on collision between two buses.