The Board Chairman of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), George Spencer Quaye, has urged the Authority to align its operations more closely with efforts to improve road safety.
He said too many vehicles on the country’s roads remained unchecked for roadworthiness, largely due to weak enforcement.
Mr Quaye made the call at the 2026 mid-year review conference of the DVLA in Sunyani in the Bono Region yesterday.
The conference, on the theme, “Transforming DVLA for digitally-driven and efficient 24-hour service culture,” brought together regional managers, board members and staff to assess progress made during the first half of the year and recommit to achieving the targets set for the year.
Mr Quaye also urged regional managers to identify weaknesses and corruption within aspects of the enforcement regulations and address practices that allowed violations to be negotiated away.
Expressing concern over the alarming rate of road crashes and the resulting loss of lives, he attributed the situation partly to weak enforcement of road safety regulations.
He disclosed that between January and April 2026, 1,009 people lost their lives in 4,899 road crashes, while 5,982 others sustained injuries.
He further stated that in 2025, 2,949 people died in 14,743 road crashes, with 16,714 others sustaining injuries.
According to Mr Quaye, the statistics should be a cause for concern for the Authority and required urgent measures to improve road safety.
He identified speeding, drink-driving, dangerous overtaking, fatigue, distraction, driving unroadworthy vehicles, driving without the requisite competence and disregard for basic traffic rules as some of the major factors contributing to road crashes.
He, therefore, called on the regional managers to take steps to address such behaviours and help make the country’s roads safer.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the DVLA, Julius Neequay Kotei, said plans were underway for 29 DVLA offices across the country to operate fully-fledged 24-hour services in line with the government’s policy of improving efficiency.
He said the Transport Ministry’s implementation of the Road Traffic Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2519), which repealed L.I. 2180, had paved the way for the introduction of the new number plates beginning in October this year.
Mr Kotei said the new digital system would also help eliminate revenue leakages in the vehicle registration process.
The Bono Regional Minister, Joseph Addae Akwaboah, in a speech read on his behalf, commended the DVLA for modernising and digitalising its operations, saying the measures had improved efficiency.
He urged the Authority to strengthen collaboration with its stakeholders to help reduce road crashes in the country.
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