The Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwame Governs Agbodza, has announced plans to introduce tougher sanctions against vehicle overloading, including the forfeiture and auctioning of excess goods, as the government moves to protect Ghana’s roads and improve road safety.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Wednesday, January 28, Mr Agbodza said the current approach to managing overloaded vehicles has proven ineffective and costly to the country.
“Currently, when a car is overloaded, what we do is to stop it and ask the driver to offload the excess goods and use another vehicle to convey them. That is not working,” he said.
The minister noted that the practice often leads to foreign trucks, particularly from Burkina Faso and other neighbouring countries, being stranded on Ghanaian roads for weeks, creating congestion and additional pressure on road infrastructure.
To address this, Mr Agbodza said the government intends to amend Legislative Instrument (LI) 2180 to introduce stiffer penalties that will serve as a deterrent to habitual overloading.
Under the proposed policy, drivers arrested for overloading will forfeit the excess goods, which will then be auctioned, with proceeds paid into the Road Maintenance Trust Fund.
“The new policy we want to include in LI 2180 is that when you are arrested for overloading, the overloaded portion of the goods is forfeited, auctioned, and the money given to the road maintenance trust fund,” he explained.
Mr Agbodza expressed confidence that the combined measures of forfeiture and financial loss would force transport operators to comply with weight limits.
“We hope these two things will be deterrent enough to make people think twice before they overload on our roads,” he added.
The minister also noted that the scale of overloading seen on Ghana’s roads is unusual compared to other countries in the sub-region, stressing the urgent need for reform.
“In the sub-region, I don’t think overloading the way it happens in Ghana happens anywhere else,” he said.
Vehicle overloading has long been identified as a major contributor to rapid road deterioration, increased maintenance costs, and road traffic accidents in Ghana. The proposed amendments to LI 2180 form part of broader efforts by the Roads Ministry to extend the lifespan of roads and ensure safer transport for all road users.
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com
