The Ghana Police Service has moved the full implementation of TRAFFITECH-GH, its automated traffic law enforcement programme, from 1st October to 1st November 2026. The official reason is wider public awareness and education. That reason is valid, but it is incomplete.
I support automated enforcement. I was present when the programme was launched at the Shippers Council Hall in Accra. Speeding kills, and a camera does not take a bribe. But a camera can only fairly enforce a law that the road makes visible, against an owner the database correctly identifies, using a citation the law correctly states. On all three points there are gaps.
This article sets out the challenges facing TRAFFITECH-GH: road infrastructure, vehicle ownership and telephone records, device calibration and the right to contest, the accuracy of the legal texts, back-office capacity and data protection, and public trust. It closes with practical steps that can be taken in the thirty days now available.
- What TRAFFITECH-GH Is
TRAFFITECH-GH is run by the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD). Cameras and Personal Data Assistant (PDA) devices capture offences. The evidence goes to a back office for validation. The registered owner of the vehicle then receives an Electronic Notice of Violation (ENV) by SMS, stating the offence and the fine.
Fines are paid electronically through the Ghana.gov platform within 14 days. A one per cent penalty is added for each day of default. Until all fines are cleared, the DVLA will not renew a driver’s licence, register or transfer a vehicle, or inspect it for roadworthiness.
Enforcement will begin with speeding. The MTTD says cameras are already deployed in parts of Accra, Tema, Takoradi, Kumasi, Sunyani, Tamale, Koforidua and Ho, using cameras fitted in police vehicles and movable tripod cameras. A third category of device, able to detect both speeding and red-light violations, is to follow later in the year at selected signalised junctions.
The automated fines are set by Regulation 242 of the Road Traffic Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2519). The fine is 10 penalty units for each of the first three offences, 15 for the fourth and 20 for the fifth. A sixth offence within 24 months goes to court, with suspension or revocation of the licence for at least 12 months, re-training and re-testing.
- A Long Road to the Starting Line
The programme has been years in preparation. Regional stakeholder engagements were held in Koforidua, Bolgatanga, Tamale and Tema in 2023. The Police said then that the system would reduce roadside contact between officers and motorists and help restore public trust.
Those engagements were welcome. Engagement, however, must include listening. Several of us in the safety profession who attended the launch and raised constructive concerns have since found ourselves outside the conversation. A programme of this scale needs its critics inside the room. Hard questions asked before launch cost far less than court cases after it.
- The Road Must Speak Before the Camera Does
Automated enforcement assumes the driver can see the law. On many of our roads, the law is hard to see.
Traffic signals at a number of junctions are faulty, misaligned or only partly working. Lane markings and stop lines have faded. Overgrown trees hide signal heads. CUTS International Accra raised this point before the postponement. It noted that a camera’s clear view of a vehicle does not mean the driver had a clear view of the signal, and it called for inspection and repair of infrastructure at camera locations before enforcement begins.
Speed limits raise the same issue. Regulation 212 of L.I. 2519 sets maximum speeds by class of vehicle. On our highways the limit changes as a road enters and leaves a town, and the signs announcing those changes are often missing, damaged or covered by vegetation. A motorist who cannot see the limit cannot fairly be fined for exceeding it.
There is a further problem with the signs themselves. The speed limit sign on our roads shows only a number in a red circle, such as 50, with no unit. L.I. 2519 expresses speed in kilometres per hour, and under international road-sign practice the unit is taken from the country’s system. Many vehicles on our roads were imported second-hand from the United States, and others were converted from right-hand drive vehicles from the United Kingdom. Their speedometers often show miles per hour as the main scale, with kilometres in small print or not at all. A driver who reads 50 on the sign and holds 50 on an mph dial is travelling at about 80 km/h. The camera will record a serious speeding offence by a driver who honestly believed he was within the limit.
The law may favour the State on this point. Fairness requires more. Speed limit signs on enforced corridors should carry “km/h” beneath the number. The DVLA should check speedometer units at registration and at roadworthiness inspection, and require a kilometre scale on every vehicle. The public education campaign now under way should address the point directly.
Speeding is the first offence to be enforced, so signage on the enforced corridors is the first infrastructure test. The Ghana Highway Authority, the Department of Urban Roads and the district assemblies all have a duty here. The motorist should not pay for the failures of the road agencies.
- The Owner on the Register Is Not Always the Driver
The ENV goes to the person whose name is on the DVLA register. The MTTD has said so plainly and has urged sellers who never transferred ownership to regularise their records.
This is a large problem. Many vehicles in Ghana change hands informally, sometimes several times. Regulation 30 of L.I. 2519 requires notice of change of ownership within fourteen days, but compliance has been poor for decades. In the early months, many notices will reach the wrong person.
Telephone numbers are a second weakness. The notice is sent to the number on record. Numbers change, lines are abandoned, and some vehicles were registered with an agent’s or a relative’s number. A notice that is never received cannot be paid within 14 days. The daily penalty will then run against someone who does not know it exists.
Companies, churches, schools, fleet operators and government agencies face a further difficulty. The notice reaches the institution, not the driver. The Regulations should give owners a clear procedure for nominating the person who was driving at the time of the offence.
The system also applies only to Ghanaian-licensed drivers and locally registered vehicles. Foreign-registered and ECOWAS-plated vehicles are to be handled separately. On the Elubo and Aflao corridors, a Ghanaian motorist will be captured while a foreign vehicle at the same speed may not be. The separate arrangement for these vehicles should be explained before 1st November.
- Calibration, Evidence and the Right to Contest
The Police state that all speed devices are type-approved and periodically calibrated by the Ghana Standards Authority. That is the right standard, and it should be visible. Each device should have a published calibration certificate showing its serial number and the date of its next calibration. A motorist who contests a notice should be able to obtain the certificate for the device that captured the vehicle.
Tripod cameras can be moved by officers as driving behaviour changes. That flexibility is useful, but it needs rules. Placement criteria should be published. Devices should not be sited just past a point where the limit drops sharply behind poor signage. Deployment logs should be kept and audited.
A motorist has two weeks to pay or contest. The contest process has not been explained in enough detail. Who hears the challenge? How long will a decision take? Does the daily penalty stop running while a challenge is pending? An appeal heard only by the department that issued the notice will not command public confidence. An independent review stage is needed.
- Who Watches the Watchman?
An automated system repeats every error at scale. If one notice cites the wrong provision, thousands will.
Legal accuracy is therefore part of the infrastructure. Under the Commonwealth drafting practice that Ghana follows, an Act of Parliament is divided into sections and subsections. A Legislative Instrument made under an Act is divided into regulations and sub-regulations. The Act is cited as, for example, Section 3(1) of the Road Traffic Act, 2004 (Act 683). The Regulations are cited as, for example, Regulation 242(12) of the Road Traffic Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2519).
Yet compilations of L.I. 2519 offences now circulating among enforcement personnel label the regulations as sections. Practitioners have also drawn attention to errors in the instrument itself. In a magistrate’s court, a defence lawyer will use every such slip. A charge that cites the wrong provision invites challenge.
The remedy is straightforward. The MTTD, working with the Office of the Attorney-General, should publish one authoritative schedule of every offence enforced under TRAFFITECH-GH, giving the correct regulation number, the penalty provision and the fine in cedis. Any errors in L.I. 2519 should be corrected by amendment before the system relies on them. Every ENV should cite the regulation exactly as it appears in the gazetted text.
- Back Office, Power and Data Protection
The MTTD reports that its back office has reliable power, that the field software works offline and uploads when connectivity returns, and that about nine regional teams are ready. These assurances are welcome. The public would also benefit from knowing the capacity of the system: how many events the back office can validate each day, and how a backlog will be handled without penalties accruing unfairly.
Cameras will capture images of drivers, passengers and number plates. The Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) applies. The Police should state how long images are kept, who may access them, and how a person may request their own data.
- Public Trust and the Revenue Question
Public reaction has been mixed. A widely shared comment asked why there is a budget for cameras when the traffic lights do not work. That question reflects a real fear that automated enforcement is about revenue rather than safety.
The MTTD’s own figures point to the answer. It says speeding accounts for 62 of every 100 road crash deaths. If that is the target, success should be measured by a fall in deaths. The Police should commit to publishing quarterly data on notices issued, fines collected, challenges upheld and crash trends on enforced corridors. A defined share of fine revenue should go back into signals, signs and road markings.
The MTTD has said that officers driving private vehicles, and state vehicles without a valid exemption, will be ticketed like everyone else. That principle matters. It must be applied without exception.
- What the Next Thirty Days Should Achieve
- A joint inspection of every enforced corridor and junction by the MTTD, the Ghana Highway Authority, the Department of Urban Roads and the assemblies, with findings published and defects repaired before enforcement starts at each site.
- Speed limit signs on enforced corridors marked “km/h”, and speedometer units checked by the DVLA at registration and roadworthiness inspection.
- A DVLA ownership-transfer drive with a simplified procedure, together with a verification exercise to confirm the telephone number of every registered owner.
- Publication of the Ghana Standards Authority calibration certificates and the rules for camera placement.
- A clear and independent contest procedure, with the daily penalty suspended while a challenge is pending.
- One authoritative, correctly cited schedule of TRAFFITECH-GH offences, and correction of any errors in L.I. 2519.
- A public data protection notice under Act 843.
- Caution notices, without fines, for the first weeks at each newly activated site.
- Renewed engagement with professional bodies, transport unions, traditional authorities and constructive critics.
Conclusion
TRAFFITECH-GH can save lives. The postponement gives the Police and their partners a chance to make sure that when the first notice arrives on 1st November, it is fair, accurate and beyond legal doubt. Motorists will be asked to obey the law. The State must show that it has kept its own side of the bargain.
By Nana Annor Amihere II
* The writer Nana ANNOR AMIHERE II is the Founder, African Institute of Safety and Environmental Professionals (AfISEP) · Immediate Past National President, GhISEP
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