The move, which would be done by the Ministry of Transport in collaboration with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), would enable Ghana to obtain a comprehensive inventory of vehicles and to ensure that the right fuels were sourced to fuel them and to save the environment from being polluted by vehicular emissions.   

The re-registration exercise has become necessary because, currently in the country, there is no accurate inventory on the kind of vehicles plying our roads in spite of the fact that road transport continued to be the dominant mode of transportation, accounting for over 95 per cent of all domestic transport mode.

Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, Minister of Transport who announced this in Accra in a speech read on his behalf, said the Ministry was collaborating with other sector Ministries including; the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, as well as the Ministry of Energy and other agencies.

It would ensure that the transport sector becomes efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly.

Mr Asiamah was speaking at a day’s workshop on Vehicle Inventory and Policy Options for Fuel Economy Standards in Ghana.

The Workshop organised by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in collaboration with the UN Environment, and other local partners at Amasaman, near Accra, was meant to disseminate the Vehicle Inventory report and to share Results of Policy Strategies for implementing Fuel Economy Standards in Ghana.

Fuel Economy is the relationship between the distance travelled and the amount of fuel consumed and that was dependant on a number of factors including; the engine size, traffic conditions and the nature of the fuel, Mr Asiamah explained.

He said currently, Ghana had no specific fuel economy policy or regulations, but there were few policies that related to fuel economy which included; import taxation, vehicle valuation, fuel quality, and over-aged penalty among others.

He said it was worrying that current fiscal regime and customs directive made it cheaper to import used vehicles than new and efficient ones, while the less quality of fuels in the country do not also support the introduction of a more efficient vehicles into the Ghanaian market.

“These are issues that should be further considered in the development of the policy options so that we are able to come out with a document that is workable and will yield results”, he told the stakeholders attending the workshop.

He urged the participants to consider options that were available to reform the custom directives to attract the import of energy efficient and clean vehicles, such as electric and hybrid vehicles, and also discuss what fiscal measures could be employed to incentivised efficient technologies and discourage inefficient ones.

He expressed hope that the outcome of the workshop would be very informative to the on-going review of the National Transport Policy, which was in its finalisation stage.