Yellow has taken notice of the announced enforcement of restrictions on the importation of used vehicles more than 10 years old into Ghana.
We support every genuine effort to keep flooded, burnt, stolen, badly damaged and unsafe vehicles off our roads. No Ghanaian family should spend its hard-earned money on a vehicle that has been dishonestly repaired, cannot protect its occupants or will become a financial burden shortly after purchase.
However, we respectfully believe that the age of a vehicle should not be the only measure of its safety, quality or usefulness.
A well-maintained 13-year-old vehicle with a verified history may be safer, cleaner and more reliable than a 3-year-old vehicle that has been flooded, crashed or poorly built. Ghana therefore needs a system that examines the actual condition, emissions, mileage, structural integrity and maintenance history of each vehicle-not merely its year of manufacture.
Ghana has extremely poor public transportation and logistics systems. And we know this truth: that, for the ordinary Ghanaian, a vehicle is not always a luxury. It may be the taxi that feeds a family, the van that carries goods to the market, the school bus that takes children to school, the trotro that carries workers across the cities, the motorcycle that delivers packages or the ambulance that serves a community. When safe vehicles become unaffordable, people do not suddenly buy new ones; they keep older vehicles already on our roads for much longer.
Further, Ghana must also approach the transition to electric vehicles with much dexterity and economic realism. Electric mobility definitely has an important future, and YellowRyde intends to support cleaner transportation where it is practical and affordable. But technology must improve people’s lives rather than become another burden imposed on households and businesses that are already struggling with high living costs, expensive credit, unreliable infrastructure.
Through YellowRyde, we envision a modern transport system that combines safer vehicles, trained drivers, responsible fleet management, improved public transportation and gradually adopted cleaner technologies. Our wider Yellow business ecosystem seeks to connect products, packages, people and places through affordable logistics, mobility and commerce.
We therefore call for a balanced national vehicle policy that:
- assesses vehicles according to their actual condition and safety;
- reduces excessive duties on safe, fuel-efficient and productive vehicles;
- supports the gradual adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles where economically viable;
- introduces incentives for removing very old and polluting vehicles from Ghana’s roads; and
- protects ordinary citizens from unsafe vehicles without pricing them out of mobility.
Our country needs transport policies that recognise our present economic reality while preparing responsibly for the future. Safety, affordability, environmental responsibility and national resilience must move together.
At Yellow, we believe the right transport policy is not about blindly choosing electric vehicles over conventional vehicles. It is about using the right technology, at the right time, at a cost that the Ghanaian people and economy can sustain.
Yellow, Connecting What Matters.