The National Executives of the Concerned Drivers Association have dismissed announcements by its regional executives that there will be an increase in transport fares on March 7, 2024
This comes after the Transport Operators Union and the Concerned Drivers Association jointly announced a 30 per cent hike in transport fares, effective Thursday, March 7.
They attributed the fare increase to the government’s failure to address their concerns adequately and highlighted the continuous surge in fuel prices, which has significantly impacted their livelihoods and made it challenging to sustain their operations.
But the national executives of the drivers’ union have debunked this announcement indicating that there has not been a conclusion in their deliberations with the Transport Ministry.
Speaking to JoyNews, the Public Relations Officer of the union, David Agboado stated that they plan to adjust transport fares only after deliberations with the Transport Ministry.
He clarified that the three regional executives of the union, representing Greater Accra, Central Region, and Ashanti Region, hold authoritative positions but stressed that they cannot announce an increase in transport fares based solely on the magnitude of their respective regions.
“As I speak, we have sanctioned and suspended them for three months. We suspended the three regional officers, namely Greater Accra Regional Chairman, Central Regional Chairman and then Ashanti Regional Chairman.
“We suspended them because we are all planning.
“We didn’t come out with any solid or concrete day that this is the day we are coming out with our transport fares, and these three regional officers took it upon themselves and announced that on the 7th, they would increase transport,” he said.
The Deputy PRO of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Samuel Amoah, echoed the position of the Concerned Drivers Union
He expressed surprise at the sudden announcement of the transport fares, stating that the drivers’ union and the GPRTU have engaged in multiple discussions with the Transport Ministry and former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, regarding the proposed fare increment.
“The agreement was that our proposed 20% that we had wanted to come up, we decided to put everything on paper, after that, we submitted our report to the Transport Ministry, waiting for them to call us for our proposed 20% increment.
“So we were still waiting – we had a brief meeting and we were even talking about it that is long overdue and we are still waiting for them – and if the whole of this week, we don’t get anything from them, probably by next week, we will approach them again. So this really just came in as a surprise,” he said.
