For years, residents of northern Ghana have complained about the lack of new, reliable buses from Intercity STC operating on routes connecting the Upper East, Upper West, Savannah, North East, and Northern regions. Many were left frustrated as only old, frequently broken-down buses plied those routes, sparking accusations of regional bias and neglect.
Now, Nana Akomea, former Managing Director of Intercity STC, has broken his silence, explaining the real reason behind the controversial absence of new buses in the north. Speaking on A1 Radio, Mr. Akomea revealed that the issue stemmed from restrictions imposed by a private partner who supplied STC with 50 new buses under a profit-sharing agreement.
“We got a private partner who brought us 50 buses for us to work. We would operate the buses, and we’d take a percentage, and we’d give him a percentage. But he said that he didn’t want his buses to go beyond Kumasi. So, we couldn’t even operate his buses to Sunyani, because he said the roads there are not good and all of that, he only wanted Kumasi, Accra-Kumasi,” he stated.
The former STC boss emphasized that the decision wasn’t one of discrimination or preference, but a business condition attached to the buses by their financier.
“These were 2022 and 2023 model buses, the newest in our fleet,” he explained. “The supplier said: ‘Please, only operate my buses to Kumasi.’ So we couldn’t send them further north even if we wanted to.”
Akomea acknowledged the frustrations of residents, some of whom accused him of favoritism. “People used to say I didn’t like the people in the north because they were seeing old buses breaking down all the time,” he said. “But that was never the case. We simply had to work with what we had.”
He also shed light on broader challenges facing STC at the time, including financial constraints that made it difficult to procure new buses or maintain the aging fleet.
“Some of the buses had done over a million kilometers and were still on the road,” Akomea noted. “Ideally, long-distance buses should be replaced every four or five years. After that, they can serve short local routes like Bolgatanga to Navrongo, but not long hauls like Bolga to Accra.”
He added that even the government was financially strapped at the time, struggling to pay debts, let alone fund new buses. Calls for STC to improve its services to the northern regions have been growing louder, with many urging the government and transport authorities to prioritize road infrastructure and equitable distribution of transport resources.
“The real issue is our poor road network,” Akomea concluded. “Until we radically improve our highways, this problem will persist.”
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah|Bolgatanga
