Deputy Minister of Transport Visited NRSC

The Deputy Minister for Transport, Hon. Daniel Nii Titus Glover, has paid a familiarization visit to the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC).

Hon. Glover's visit to the agency was to acquaint himself with the Commission's activities and also get first-hand information on the work of the Commission.

The Chief Director of the Ministry, Mr. Twumasi-Ankrah Selby, said the visit was to help the deputy minister understudy the work of the agencies that implement the Ministry's policies in order to inform him on what to do and where to start from.

The Executive Director of NRSC, Mrs. Obiri-Yeboah, welcoming the Deputy Minister expressed gratitude for the visit and hoped that would mark the beginning of a smooth working relationship with the Ministry while he remained in office.

She said the NRSC as an Agency under the Ministry, has small staff strength of about 90 people across the country. That, she added, put pressure on the Commission's operations, even though the Commission was managing to perform its mandate.

She said the Commission had some constraints affecting the smooth running of it work. She however, hoped that the visit would open the Deputy Minister up to some of those challenges so that together both the Ministry and the Commission would find better ways of addressing those challenges to ensure an efficient running of the Commission.

Mr Henry Asomani, Planning Officer (PO) with the Planning and Programming Unit of the NRSC, in a presentation on the topic: "Road Safety in Ghana, Progress and Challenges" said the Commission was currently operating on the National Road Safety Strategy (NRSS III) which is hinged on the United Nations Decade of Action to reduce road traffic crashes and injuries by 50% in year 2020.

According to him, the Commission had adopted some strategies to carry out its mandate mainly through its advocacy programmes in the area of driver, passenger and pedestrian led campaigns with focus on school children.

He added that the Commission was partnering other institutions in the Vehicle Towing Project, spot fines regulations and speed and red light enforcement cameras, all as ways to enforce the compliance of road safety regulations on our roads.

The Deputy Minister, in response commended the Executive Director, management and staff of the Commission for their hard work in ensuring that lives were saved on the roads.

He commended the Commission on some of the interventions it had put in place, particularly the speed camera project which is to check violation of road traffic regulations by drivers.

He however, cautioned that the projects be properly carried out to make it more efficient.

The Minister declared his intention to become a road safety advocate. He pledged to throw his weight behind the Commission to run it public education and advocacy work.

Accompanying the Minister from the Transport Ministry were the director of Finance and Administration (F&A), Mr. Emmanuel Num and the Ag. Director, Planning, Programming, Monitoring and Evaluation (PPME), Mrs. Irene Messibah.

Source: ISD (Samuel Owusu-Yeboah)

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