From Saturday, September 26, 2026, Ghanaians will pay eight per cent more to move.
The announcement by the Ghana Private Road Transport Union and the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council, after a meeting with the Ministry of Transport from September 8 to 22, is the first official upward adjustment since the 15 per cent decrease in May 2025 (see front page for story).
But in Ghana, transport fares are never just transport fares.
They are inflation, productivity, and social justice rolled into one receipt.
Official statistics suggest that over 80 per cent of urban residents rely on public transport for daily commutes.
A 2017 national urban mobility survey found that 84 per cent of passenger trips in cities are made by public transport and only 15 per cent by private cars.
Approximately 84 per cent of all daily passenger trips in and out of the Accra Ring Road area are via public transport. Trotros alone account for 70 per cent of passenger trips in the country.
In other words, when fares rise by eight per cent, prices rise for everyone else too.
The market woman at Agbogbloshie who pays more for trotro will add it to the price of tomatoes.
The factory worker in Tema who spends an extra GH¢1.60 daily will have GH¢40 less at the end of the month.
The haulage increase will show up in cement, iron rods, and foodstuffs.
That is why the GPRTU and GRTCC are right to describe this as a delicate balancing act between the financial challenges facing drivers and commuters.
We must understand why this has become inevitable. The last tampering with fares was a downward review in May 2025. It was justified then.
Fuel prices were falling steadily — petrol from around GH¢15 per litre in January 2025 to less than GH¢12 per litre, even touching GH¢9.99 at some pumps — and the cedi was appreciating. Drivers and the government agreed to pass that relief to commuters. That relief has been wiped out.
The government’s intervention on diesel, acknowledged by the unions, has helped to moderate the increase, but it could not prevent it.
This is precisely why some commercial operators had already begun implementing arbitrary increases on certain routes, forcing the Ministry of Transport and the unions to negotiate a unified, official rate. That arbitrariness is dangerous.
It breeds extortion, confusion, and fights at lorry stations.
Now the critical question is compliance and credibility.
The GPRTU and GRTCC have directed all operators to comply with the approved fares and display revised fare schedules at loading terminals.
They have warned that operators who charge above approved rates will face sanctions.
But enforcement has always been the weak link.
The Daily Graphic has seen this cycle too many times: fares are announced, but drivers charge what they want, especially at peak hours and during rains.
The Ministry of Transport must empower Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, the Police MTTD, and the unions themselves to enforce the list.
No driver should be allowed to charge GH¢7 for a GH¢5.50 approved fare because “fuel is expensive” or “I will go empty on return.”
If fuel is expensive, that cost has already been factored into the eight per cent.
Eighty-four per cent reliance on public transport is not a problem; it is an opportunity — if that public transport is efficient.
But our public transport is almost entirely privately owned, fragmented, informal, and run on petrol and diesel.
Every fuel price shock becomes a fare shock.
Every cedi depreciation becomes a commuter tax.
We need to deliberately shift volume from 15-seater trotros and shared taxis to high-capacity buses.
Where is the Bus Rapid Transit system that was piloted on the Amasaman-Achimota-Accra corridor?
Where is the fleet expansion for Metro Mass and the private Aayalolo buses?
Where is the investment in non-motorised transport for short trips of up to four kilometres that now cost GH¢2.90?
Until we move more people in fewer, bigger, more efficient buses — ideally running on cheaper fuel or electricity — we will be back here every six months negotiating another eight or 15 per cent.
The eight per cent increase effective Saturday is painful, but understandable.
Let us enforce it fairly, explain it clearly, and use it as a spur to finally build a public transport system that does not punish the 80 per cent of urban Ghanaians who have no other choice but to board a trotro every morning to keep this economy moving.
