The Member of Parliament for Mpraeso, Davis Ansah Opoku, is suggesting to the government to prioritize the digitalization of toll collections on major highways in the country if it reintroduces them.
The government, in November 2021, scrapped road toll collection. However, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, announced its reintroduction as part of the government’s revenue measures in the 2023 Budget.
Reacting to a statement commemorating World Cities Day, the MP for Mpraeso says digitalizing toll collection would help in dealing with vehicular traffic and road crashes at such toll collection points.
“When you are in the United States, and you are approaching toll booths, you do not see persons standing at the toll booths. In Ghana, we are no longer taking tolls; if, in the wisdom of the government, they would want to reintroduce toll booths, I’m suggesting that we digitalize the entire process, where number plates will have chips, and we can have machines that can read chips and all of that. So that this huge traffic we usually see and the human interface that happens at the traffic, causing accidents, will no longer be there,” the Member of Parliament for Mpraeso said.
The Ministry of Roads and Highways, on Thursday, November 18, 2021, closed all toll booths across the country following an announcement by the Minister of Finance during the 2022 budget presentation to the effect that toll collection would no longer exist.
