Professor H Kwasi Prempeh, the Chairman of the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC), has tackled the Minister of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovation, Samuel Nartey George, after his immediate suspension of the enforcement exercise on unlicensed delivery riders.
The exercise was being carried out by the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission (PCSRC) and the Ghana Police against unlicensed delivery riders.
On Thursday, August 21, 2025, Sam George announced the directive to be halted in a post on X, which raised public concern after a viral video captured chaotic scenes.
Angry delivery riders clashed with PCSRC officials at the National Theatre in Accra over the seizure of their motorcycles.
According to Sam George, the exercise is consistent with Ghana’s existing laws regulating the use of motorbikes for courier services, but he asserted that the enforcement must be accompanied by wider stakeholder and public sensitisation.
Sam George, in his post, stated, “I have directed this afternoon an immediate halt to the ongoing enforcement action by the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission.
The action, in conjunction with the Ghana Police, is necessary to bring sanity and order to the use of motorbikes for delivery purposes as stipulated by law. However, I believe the Commission needs to do more stakeholder engagements and public education before resuming enforcement. We must enforce the law with a humane face to it”.
However, Professor H Kwasi Prempeh, in a Facebook post, noted that Politics remains the number one obstacle in Ghana’s Rule of Law culture.
According to Prof Prempeh, what is the point of setting up a regulatory body with the authority to regulate, for a minister or a politician to simply issue directives to halt their actions?
He further questioned whether Sam George had the power to give such an order.
In a Facebook post on August 23, 2025, “What is the point of setting up a regulatory body with the authority to regulate and enforce a regime of measures and related sanctions in a designated industry if the minister or some other politician can simply issue directives to countermand an enforcement action by the regulator? Does the applicable law give him the power summarily to countermand the regulator’s enforcement action this way?
“Why have the regulator at all then? Ordinarily, the minister would be limited to issuing policy directives in writing, not intervening in the regulator’s work on a case-by-case basis”, he added.
“This is the appropriate division of labour or ‘separation of powers’ between politician and regulator. Once a Minister intervenes improperly this way, the regulator is effectively rendered useless. Politics remains the number one obstacle to building a Rule of Law culture in this town. We are the ultimate victims and losers!”Prof Prempeh wrote.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Police Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) and the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission (PCSRC) arrested about 150 unlicensed courier operators in Accra following efforts to sanitise Ghana’s fast-growing courier and logistics sector.
According to the regulators, many arrested were operating through ride-hailing platforms without proper vehicle registration, with others running independent delivery services without the required licenses.
The regulators revealed that the courier operators not only evade taxes but also pose consumer protection risks and security.
They added that operators had been given a two-month grace period to fulfil licensing requirements, but majority of them failed to meet the deadline
“Because of the delivery services they are offering, the law mandates them to come for that license. Section 10 of the Act makes it a criminal offence to operate delivery services without a license from the Commission,” he stated.