The Coastal Development Authority (CODA) has rejected claims that some mini cars meant to help phase out okada operations in Ghana under the CODA Drive initiative have been left to rot.
CODA in a statement insisted that the content of the said publication is “palpably false, malicious, baseless, totally untrue and damaging just to cause disaffection for the Authority and Government.”
During the run-up to the 2020 polls, the New Patriotic Party government promised to phase out okada operations by introducing Bajaj Qute vehicles on a hire-purchase basis to provide a safer means of transport as well as jobs for the youth.
The ‘CODA drive’ initiative was thus launched in October 2021 to honour the promise.
Barely two years after the initiative was launched, some social media commentators claimed that the cars had been left at the mercy of the weather, a report later carried by Pulse Ghana.
But in a statement issued on August 21, CODA clarified only 100 cars were procured adding that the vehicles were “oversubscribed and the constant requests for same have been impressive.”
“That the Authority wishes to state in clear, unequivocal terms that, it only procured 100 of the CODA Drive Vehicles at a cost of GH¢25,000.00 per unit, and a total cost of Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis (100 vehicles) and NOT Eighty-Five Million Ghana Cedis (GH¢85M) as propagated by Pulse.com.gh and some faceless people”.
