President John Dramani Mahama has backed the newly introduced TraffiTech-GH traffic enforcement system, telling motorists unhappy with the penalties under the system to avoid speeding rather than complain about the cost of fines.
According to John Mahama, drivers who observed prescribed speed limits would have no reason to worry about penalties.
He noted that compliance with traffic regulations was the straightforward way to avoid sanctions.
Speaking in an interview with 1957 News on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at Jumby Bay Island in Antigua and Barbuda, Mahama stated, “If the [fines are too expensive, then don’t overspeed; that’s all; there is a solution to it”.
Mahama argued that the enforcement of speed limits was necessary to address dangerous driving and reduce preventable road crashes.
President Mahama also rejected suggestions that the government should postpone the deployment of the TraffiTech technology until roads and related infrastructure had been fully improved.
He stated, “My understanding is that Traffitech has begun with overspeeding; they have not yet added the other components of jumping red light, parking wrongly,” he said.
“And so I hear they [the public] say we should fix the roads before we introduce Traffitech. I mean, it doesn’t happen like that. The roads are not perfect in the UK, and yet they have speed cameras,” he added.
However, President Mahama directed the police and agencies responsible to install clear warning signs ahead of locations where speed cameras are deployed.
Mahama added, “All I will urge is that the police and those implementing Traffitech should put signs showing where the cameras are, because that is one of the things you need to do if you are introducing this kind of innovation”.
“You need to put signposts, warning motorists, that there is a speed camera ahead. I think that transparency is important”.
“If you look at the number of children knocked down every year in Ghana when they are coming from school, you will understand why it is important for us to check over speeding. Children coming from school are knocked down and killed or permanently injured, and so it is important for us to check speeding”, he said.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Abraham Amaliba, has said that the Traffitech system will, for now, only be deployed on roads where speed limits are clearly displayed.
According to the NRSA, the move is to avoid penalising motorists for the failure of authorities to provide the necessary road infrastructure.
He disclosed that the decision was intended to ensure fairness in the implementation of the digital traffic enforcement system.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Wednesday, November 4, Abraham Amaliba stated, “So we cannot use 21st-century digital policing to apply to 19th-century broken-down infrastructure. You know what that means. Our infrastructure is broken”.
“But we need to implement the digital Traffitech. So what we have agreed is that we’ll deploy the cameras to only the routes or streets that have the road signs and speed limits because it’s unfair to, as it were, punish a driver when you have not provided infrastructure,” he stated.
“So, for instance, if you’re on the Boundary Road, going up to the Mahama Road, you will see that there are traffic indicators, that there are speed limits there, 50 kilometres per hour. There, the cameras will catch you,” he said.
“But where we don’t have the road infrastructure, I mean the signs, the cameras will not be used in those places,” he explained.
“Our cameras are only on streets that have the speed limits,” he added.
“So it is only fair that we do not punish people for our own inadequacies.”
He further disclosed that the decision to restrict the cameras to roads with speed limit signs was discussed at a meeting on Tuesday, November 3, which brought together the Minister for the Interior, the Minister for Local Government, the Minister for Transport, the Police Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), the NRSA and transport operators.
He stated, “So there was a meeting yesterday [Tuesday]. That meeting brought together the Interior Minister, the Local Government Minister, the Transport Minister, the Police MTTD, myself and operators of our transport system”.
“At that meeting, it was made clear, and if you ask ACP Obeng, that has been the modus operandi. It was not explained for people to know that the cameras are only deployed in areas where the speed limits exist,” he said.
“There’s a Traffictech committee that meets, and before the rollout, this committee met regularly. And that committee is what did its work till this day, so we have the rollout,” he said.
Watch the video below:
The newly introduced TraffiTech system has been the talk of the town in Ghana since it became operational on November 1, 2026. Following a breakfast meeting for Commonwealth Heads of Government, convened by Commonwealth Secretary-General Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey at Jumby Bay Island in Antigua and Barbuda, I engaged President Mahama, an active social media user, to find out whether he had heard about the buzz surrounding TraffiTech back home and to seek his comments on the public reactions.
— The1957News (@The1957News) November 4, 2026
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