The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has engaged the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) to identify critical road safety challenges and interventions to be incorporated into Ghana’s upcoming Strategic National Development Plan.
The engagement, held on Thursday, August 27, 2026, forms part of a series of broad stakeholder consultations being undertaken by the Commission to diagnose systemic development challenges across key sectors of the economy.
At the centre of discussions were Ghana’s persistent road indiscipline, weak enforcement, institutional capacity gaps, unreliable crash data, low behavioural compliance and poor inter-agency coordination all identified as major impediments to sustainable national development.
Opening the meeting, Chairman of the NDPC, Dr. Nii Moi Thompson, framed road safety not as a transport issue alone, but as a core development and productivity concern with direct implications for public safety and the returns on public investment.
He argued that Ghana’s fundamental challenge is not the absence of laws or institutions, but the failure of those institutions to translate their mandates into measurable results on the ground.
“What is the conveyor belt at this Authority? Is it broken? If it’s broken, why is it broken? How can we fix it?” Dr. Thompson queried, challenging the NRSA and other regulators to confront institutional bottlenecks undermining effective delivery.
He stressed that no amount of legislation would produce results without a corresponding shift in citizen behaviour and institutional discipline.
“The institutions and behavioural change have to go hand in hand,” he noted. “Sustainable development cannot be achieved in an environment where disregard for laws and regulations is tolerated.”
Dr. Thompson added that road crash victims must not be reduced to mere statistics, noting that every death or serious injury carries deep social and economic consequences for families, communities and the national economy.
He assured that concerns raised at the engagement would feed into the governance, law and order, and effective institutions pillars of the Strategic National Development Plan.
NRSA Pushes Tech-Driven Enforcement But Cries Over Funding
Responding, the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation at the NRSA, Mr. Alexander Ayeta, outlined the Authority’s multi-pronged interventions across education, enforcement, engineering and emergency response.
He revealed that the Authority is currently piloting automated traffic enforcement systems as part of a technology-driven approach to curb road indiscipline and improve compliance.
Mr. Ayeta also pointed to ongoing reforms to improve the availability, accuracy and reliability of road crash data to support evidence-based planning, targeted enforcement and policy decision-making.
He however lamented that inadequate funding and logistical constraints remain major obstacles hindering the Authority from fully executing its mandate.
NDPC Proposes Road Safety Indicators For MMDAs
For her part, the Director-General of the NDPC, Dr. Audrey Smock Amoah, said the Commission would explore avenues to provide technical support to the NRSA, particularly in strengthening coordination, data collection and reporting on road safety at the sub-national level.
She proposed that road safety indicators be mainstreamed into existing performance assessment frameworks for the 261 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to enhance monitoring, accountability and local-level action.
“This will provide a clearer basis for assessing road safety outcomes at the local level where most crashes and enforcement challenges occur,” she said.
Senior officials of the NRSA who contributed to the discussion also called for stronger decentralised road safety structures, improved road design and pedestrian infrastructure, sustainable financing for post-crash emergency care, and enhanced collaboration among key actors including the Ghana Police Service, road agencies, health institutions and MMDAs.
They emphasised that lasting improvement in road safety outcomes will require sustained, coordinated action across all relevant stakeholders.
The outcomes of the engagement are expected to inform the NDPC’s ongoing consultations towards the preparation of the long-term Strategic National Development Plan, which seeks to reset Ghana’s development trajectory through evidence-based and institutionally-grounded planning.
