Government has procured 500 new electronic vehicles (EV) buses to augment the transport situation in the country and also revamp the State Transport Corporation (STC), the Managing Director of STC, Alhassan Ligbi, has said. 

He said 100 EV buses were expected in the country by May this year as the first phase of the procurement, which was done under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

The MD of STC was speaking during a working visit to his office in Accra yesterday by the Minister of Transport, Joseph Bukari Nikpe, and his Deputy, Dorcas Affo Toffey.

“We received approval from our board just last week to enter into a lease-to-own agreement with a private company to bring in an initial 100 units.

We expect those 100 to arrive by May.

In addition, we have other systems in place to bring in the remaining 400,” he said.

With most of the buses being electric vehicles (EVs), he said STC was also working to develop EV infrastructure, including charging stations across the country, to ensure this does not become another hurdle for the company.

  Issues

Mr Ligbi indicated that as of the date of his assumption in office, only 50 STC buses were operational, but were at a high average fleet age.

“We had an average fleet age of six years, so the conditions are not good; erratic breakdowns are affecting the quality of the service we render.

We've put in place a system to replace the buses,” he said.

The minister said the company was also putting in place a good system to ensure that “the new buses will come and not fall into the system that brought us to where we are in the first place, but rather to make sure that we overhaul whatever we have here for the buses to operate in a much better environment”.

He indicated that the company also had over GH¢450 million in debt and outlined measures to generate more revenue and block the revenue leakages.

“There were several allied services that were outsourced, like the valuation department; we've taken it back, and we are making good progress.

In two months, we got a little over half a million from these operations.

Our parcel service has been revamped. 

“We're trying to develop it into a full-fledged cargo system.

In the month of January, we were able to rake in GH¢1.7 million out of that.

We think that once the trajectory remains the same, we should be able to improve things for the STC,” he said. 

Mr Ligbi lamented the condition of staff service, stressing that “salaries are not too good” and have made it very easy for key staff to be poached by other companies.

He remained hopeful that with the procurement of the new buses, the revenue generation of the company would improve and salaries would increase. 

Transport situation

The Minister of Transport urged the private transport operators to take advantage of the present vehicle shortage, coupled with the reduction in fuel prices, by investing more in purchasing transport.

He said the government was also taking measures to revamp the transport sector, which could affect the private transport operators if they failed to take advantage of the present challenges.

“If they are not able to take advantage, when the government fully takes advantage, I want to believe that they will not come at us, that we are taking over businesses from them,” he said. 
He encouraged ministries and companies to procure staff buses to help workers get to work on time.

He cited the Ministry of Transport as an example, noting that it no longer purchases new vehicles for management, opting instead for buses to transport staff to and from work.

Mr Nikpe lauded the management of STC for their proactive interventions in ensuring higher revenue generation efforts to address the financial challenges of the company and attract investors.