A leading research and public policy think tank, CUTS International Accra, has called on the government to establish an Accra City Transportation Authority to regulate, plan, and coordinate transport across the capital.
The call comes amid growing commuter hardship, worsening rush-hour congestion, and weak coordination resulting from the fragmentation of the old Accra Metropolitan Assembly into multiple municipal and sub-metropolitan assemblies.
According to CUTS, Accra continues to function as a single city, yet governance now operates through more than twenty assemblies working independently. Roads, drainage systems, housing developments, and transport corridors cut across several jurisdictions.
This mismatch, they said, has weakened planning, reduced accountability, and made effective transportation management difficult.
“You cannot run a single city with multiple transport decision centers working in isolation. Urban movement does not respect political boundaries. Planning must follow how people live and commute,” said Appiah Kusi Adomako, Esq., Director of the West Africa Regional Centre of CUTS International.
Between 1989 and 2017, Accra expanded from one assembly to about twenty-four. CUTS notes that decentralization itself is not the problem; the challenge lies in running transportation policy in silos in a city where most residents commute daily toward one central business district.
“The creation of multiple assemblies was not a mistake. The mistake was failing to build a city-level transport authority to coordinate planning after the fragmentation,” Mr. Adomako said.
CUTS further linked the crisis to weak enforcement of the Road Traffic Regulation 2012, Legislative Instrument 2180. Regulation 121 requires private operators to work under defined route-based systems with clear service standards. However, this framework remains largely inactive, with assemblies issuing permits that apply broadly rather than to specific routes.
As a result, drivers often choose only high-profit corridors, leaving many routes underserved. Transport unions frequently allocate routes based on influence rather than planning data.
“You now have a city where transport supply responds to lobbying power instead of commuter demand,” Mr. Adomako noted.
The government has responded by announcing the procurement of over 350 buses for Metro Mass Transit, alongside assurances from the Vice President that high-occupancy buses will ease congestion. CUTS welcomed the intervention but warned that buses alone will not solve the problem.
“Procurement is necessary, but procurement alone will fail. Without policy reform, coordination, and strong institutions, the same crisis will return within a few years, and many of these buses will end up as scrap.”
CUTS emphasized that the real problem is a dysfunctional transportation system made up of weak policy design and poor infrastructure management.
The think tank recommended strict route-based licensing under LI 2180 using census and mobility data to determine optimal fleet numbers, alongside sustained public investment in dedicated lanes, terminals, and modern public transport systems. They stressed that such investment cannot be one-off.
CUTS International urged the government to retool assemblies and strengthen enforcement capacity across the metropolitan area.
“Accra does not suffer from a shortage of buses alone. Accra suffers from a shortage of planning, coordination, and political commitment to treat transportation as the lifeline of the city,” he said.
