Ghana’s Coastal Development Authority plans to introduce ‘water bus’ transport system

Mona Gertrude Effah said this is to ensure that they promote transportation along the coastal region in Ghana and ease traffic along the N1.

She said that talks are ongoing for a possible Public-Private-Partnership agreement for the service to begin in the country.

In an interview with Accra-based Citi FM, she said “We have decided to come up with something called the marine transport from the Volta Region to the Western Region…. We are going to have a sort of a ship that can carry goods and passengers and we are going to ensure that we have transit points along the route from Volta to the Western Region.”

“This is a PPP arrangement. It is not going to be funded by the Government of Ghana [GoG]. We have the mandate to partner with private investors to come in,” she added.

Ms Effah was optimistic that the “water bus” will boost economic activities especially in communities where the ship will dock.

“This we think will help in another way to boost the economic activities in the various areas that these ships will be landing…It is not an overly ambitious thing…It is going to help the people along the coast.”

In Ghana now, the only public commercial watercraft transport is the inland ferry operations by the Volta Lake Transport Company Limited (VLTC) which operates ferries conveying passengers and goods on the Volta Lake.

The most patronized mode of transportation in Ghana now is the road. This is estimated to be transporting over 80% of passengers and goods from one place to the other.

The high patronage of road transport leads to more motor crashes and heavy traffic congestion in the country.

Ms Effah explained that the sea bus will help reduce road accidents and also make sure highly flammable products such as fuel is transported more safely.