Opinions have divided sharply over the directive by the Greater Accra Regional Minister Henry Quartey that Tricycle operators, popularly referred to as Aboboya, with effect November 1, should desist from using the highways.
While some, mostly market women, have lauded the directive calling it a great move, others believe it was a rush decision that will leave the markets choke with refuse, which will be a return to the days that there used to be ‘mountains’ of rubbish uncollected for several days.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, at the launch of “Clean Your Frontage” campaign in Accra on Friday October 22, 2021 had directed all tricycles to stop using major highways from November 1.
In relation to the above directive, some households and shop owners at Dome in the Ga East Municipal Assemble who spoke to Mynewsafric.com reporter Melody Hini-Amoako, have expressed mixed feelings.
“it will help a lot and it’s a good move, and I will be glad if they ban commercial motor operators too (Okada) because they contribute to a major factor of accidents on our roads hence, they should not be allowed to operate at all, countries like Nigeria and Togo are suffering same fate which has made their roads crowded but Ghana is a decent country thus everything else should be decent so I support the ban of these tricycles, most robbery cases occur with the help of these tricycles especially Okada”, a retail shop owner at Born-Again a suburb of Dome in Ga East Municipal Assembly said.
‘’The use of the aboboya is fast and efficient but if the government wants to ban it then we have no other choice than to obey their directives as it will help the country’’, a market woman at Dome market explained.
However, others have also expressed displeasure saying the ban will affect them greatly and that of their businesses since they use the tricycle often for transporting their goods which is less expensive as compared to taxis and mini vans, also known as ‘trotro’.
They are of the view that, even before the directive come into force, government should ensure fuel prices are reduced or put measures in place to regulate Aboboya operation rather than the ban.
“The government should construct something like a road for them that they can be using, and not everyone has the money to take heavy duty cars for transportation of goods, for my opinion before they ban aboboya I think it’s good the government constructs a road for them that they will be using for the transportation of people and goods, and that’s the job most youth do to survive so I don’t think it’s a good idea for the government to ban them’’, a man named Daniel said.
On her part, Vida who is also a market woman said “I most often use aboboya so banning it will become a major problem for me, the government should allow the operation of aboboya and pragya for the sake of small-scale market women and food vendors, my reason being that picking of a taxi in this our country is very expensive as compared to that of aboboya if not then the government should reduce the cost of fuel prices to enable us hire the services of a taxi in place of the aboboya since most of us cannot afford the charges of a taxi”.
