Editorial: New Digital Traffic Enforcement Must Not End As Another Launch Ceremony

Motorists across Ghana are expected to stop facing manual routine roadside checks by the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) personnel from September 2026, following the introduction of a digital system to detect and enforce more than 47 traffic offences.

The Interior Minister, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, said cameras and other digital devices would capture violations, including those detected through face cameras, mobile cameras, in-vehicle cameras, handheld devices and radar systems. The evidence would be transmitted to a central control room, where police personnel would verify the offence before an electronic notice is sent to the offender.

The notice would identify the offence, applicable penalty and payment procedure. The initiative is intended to modernise traffic enforcement and reduce direct interactions between motorists and police officers. It is also expected to eliminate manual roadside checks for offences covered by the digital system.

The announcement is significant because Ghana has long struggled with road indiscipline and crashes. The National Road Safety Authority reported 2,949 road deaths in 2025, the highest annual figure in 35 years.

The Chronicle welcomes the announcement by the Minister for the Interior. This is the direction Ghana should be taking. For too long, traffic enforcement has depended heavily on physical encounters between motorists and police officers. Such encounters can create delays, inconvenience and more seriously opportunities for undue influence.

Moving enforcement from the roadside to cameras, sensors and a centralised verification system can make the process more objective, transparent and difficult to manipulate. It should also bring welcome relief to motorists who are routinely stopped at checkpoints, sometimes when they have committed no offence.

But while we welcome the announcement, we must ask a simple question: what happened to TraffiTech-GH? In 2023, the Ghana Police Service and the National Road Safety Authority unveiled TraffiTech-GH as an automated system that would use cameras and sensors to detect speeding, red-light violations, expired roadworthiness certificates, uninsured vehicles, mobile-phone use while driving and other offences. Offenders were supposed to receive electronic notices rather than being stopped by officers. Yet three years later, government is again announcing automated traffic enforcement.

The explanation is important. The 2024 Public-Private Partnership Annual Report showed that TraffiTech-GH was tested in 2024 but had not become operational. It identified delays in the necessary amendments to the legal framework, problems with DVLA vehicle-owner data and difficulties integrating insurance information. The project, estimated at GH¢77.73 million, had generated no revenue by the end of 2024 because it was not operational. This is precisely why the latest announcement must not end as another launch ceremony.

Ghana’s road-safety situation cannot afford repeated announcements without sustained implementation. The government must, therefore, ensure that the new system has the legal backing, reliable databases, electricity, connectivity, maintenance and trained personnel required to function continuously.

There must also be transparency. Motorists should be able to see the photographic or video evidence against them, understand the offence and challenge erroneous penalties through a clear appeals process. Technology must remove discretion, not merely move it from the roadside to a control room.

The Chronicle believes this is a step in the right direction. Modern traffic enforcement is the norm in countries that have successfully reduced unnecessary human interference in routine enforcement.

But modernisation is not achieved by launching technology. It is achieved by maintaining it, funding it, improving it and making it work. We, therefore, urge the Ministry of the Interior, the Ghana Police Service, the NRSA, DVLA and all relevant agencies to ensure that this system survives beyond the launch. Ghanaians have heard this promise before.

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