Why more buses will not fix Ghana’s urban transport

Transportation experts and policy analysts in Ghana argue that increasing the number of buses alone will not solve the urban transit crisis.

Despite government plans to acquire new buses for Metro Mass Transit Limited by early 2026, critics point to structural issues that will cause a “procurement-first” approach to fail.

Ghana’s urban transport problem is often described as a shortage of buses. This diagnosis is convenient, visible and wrong. The daily gridlock choking Accra and other fast-growing cities is not the result of too few vehicles, but of too little order. Until the underlying economics of road space, land use and governance are addressed, importing additional buses will merely add metal to the mayhem.

A city stretched beyond design

Greater Accra has become the gravitational centre of Ghana’s economy. Jobs, investment and public services have accumulated there with remarkable speed, while spatial planning has lagged far behind. The result is extreme density, long commutes and an urban form that forces millions to travel at the same time along the same corridors. Transport systems are being asked to absorb pressures that originate in housing markets, land administration and national development choices.

Roads, meanwhile, are treated as an unmanaged commons. Vehicles stop where they please, terminals appear spontaneously and enforcement is sporadic. In such conditions, congestion is not a temporary inconvenience but an equilibrium. Adding buses to this system does not increase capacity; it reduces it.

The arithmetic of congestion

Urban transport is governed by mathematics, not sentiment. When road space is scarce and unpriced, each additional vehicle imposes costs on all others. Average speeds fall, operating costs rise and journey times lengthen. Passengers experience this as unreliability; operators experience it as shrinking margins.

Public transport provided under weak governance rarely escapes this trap. Poor procurement, inflated costs, weak accountability and political interference ensure that publicly owned fleets often deliver transport that is both more expensive and less dependable than disciplined private operators. Subsidies then become permanent rather than transitional.

The myth of fleet-led reform

Calls to revive domestic bus assembly or expand state-owned fleets appeal to economic nationalism, but ignore hard constraints. Local assembly can only succeed where demand is predictable, vehicles are heavily utilised and maintenance is rigorously managed. Without route discipline and enforcement, domestically assembled buses merely fail closer to home.

Nor does technology offer a shortcut. Electric vehicles stuck in traffic pollute less locally, but they do not move people faster. Sustainability in transport is about efficiency per passenger, not the colour of the drivetrain.

Reforming what already exists

Ghana’s informal mass-transit system moves the bulk of urban passengers. It persists not because of neglect, but because it responds to demand. Attempts to eradicate it have failed; attempts to ignore it have produced chaos. The sensible path lies in formalisation.

Route franchising, minimum service standards, digital fare collection and performance-based licensing can turn informal operators into accountable service providers without destroying their commercial incentives. Passengers gain predictability; operators gain stability; the state gains oversight.

Buses that behave like trains

Large-scale rail projects retain their allure, but they are costly, slow to deliver and institutionally demanding. A more pragmatic option lies in bus rapid transit systems that borrow the discipline of rail without its price tag. Dedicated lanes, platform boarding and prepaid fares can dramatically increase capacity on key corridors at a fraction of the cost.

Such systems succeed not because buses are better vehicles, but because rules are enforced. Without enforcement, they fail just as comprehensively.

Order before investment

The most effective transport investments are often the least glamorous. Enforced loading bays, functional traffic lights, redesigned intersections and disciplined terminals can deliver immediate gains. Fixing a handful of critical junctions can outperform the purchase of hundreds of buses.

Passenger experience matters too, not as a matter of comfort but of economics. Reliability increases fare compliance; safety and shelter increase ridership. A transport system that treats passengers with indifference invites evasion and decline.

The state’s proper role

Governments are ill-suited to running buses, but indispensable in designing markets. Their task is to plan routes, manage road space, enforce rules and protect passengers. When they do less, chaos fills the gap; when they do more, inefficiency follows.

The uncomfortable conclusion

Ghana’s urban transport crisis will not be solved by importing buses, assembling them locally or repainting them green. It will be solved by reclaiming road space, enforcing discipline and aligning incentives. That requires political resolve rather than capital expenditure.

Until cities are managed as systems rather than collections of vehicles, each new bus will simply join the queue.

By: Michael Harry Yamson

Administrator of the District Assemblies Common Fund (February 2025) I Board Member I Turnaround Strategist I Advisory I Consulting I Business and Institutional Transformation I Speaker

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.