Hawkers at the Pwalugu tollbooth in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region have explained that the closure of the tollbooth has made life miserable for them as they are unable to make any significant sales at the booth.
They noted that the solid rock they had once stood on has suddenly become a valley of mud as their businesses keep sinking in it. The traders are hopeless that their economic situation will become any better. According to them, they had been depending on the congestion the collection of tolls created to earn a living and also support themselves, their families and the education of their children.
When A1 Radio visited the area weeks after its closure, Mr Nkomode as he prefers to be called stated that the current situation poses both economic and safety challenges. “We started here more than 15yrs and it has helped us so much, now they say that we should stop working. It is a big challenge for us because the passengers cannot buy anything unless a private car. It has become so risky because of the way the cars has been running here. Initially, they used to stop because they of the tollbooth, now that the collection [of tolls] has stopped, the cars do not slow down and so our lives and [those of our] children are in danger,” he explained.
Underscoring the benefits they have derived from hawking at the tollbooth Mr. Nkomode explained that, his parents were not able to see him through his education but for the sales he makes from hawking at the booth his children would not have equally been educated.
He said the closure now puts the education of his children and the children of other hawkers at risk.
Meanwhile, a Junior High School graduate who has solely relied on the sales her parents make from hawking at the booth for her education told A1 News that, she left the house for her Basic Education Certificate Examination thinking that she would complete and come and help them make some money for her Senior High School Education. She said the current sales make it difficult for her family to survive.
She said “so first when I was here the business was going on well just because of the tollbooth but when I came back after I had finished writing the B.E.C.E, I came back and they said they have locked the tollbooth. When the tollbooth was there, customers used to buy so we will get money to support ourselves but when the tollbooth is closed it is always difficult to make the sales we used to make”.
The hawkers appealed to government to go to their aid.
Background
The Minister for Roads and Highways Kwasi Amoako-Attah issued a directive to stop the collection of road tolls on public roads and bridges. The directive which followed the presentation of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, takes effect from 12 am, Thursday, November 18, 2021.
Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways Member of Parliament (MP) for Afigya Sekyere East, Stephen Pambiin Jalulah said the decision by the Ministry of Roads and Highway to immediately cease the collection of road tolls on public roads and bridges was to prevent unnecessary altercations between roads users and toll booth attendants.
Mr. Jalulah said information reached the Ministry after the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, read the 2022 Economic Policy and Budget Statement that some vehicle operators forced their way through the barriers despite warnings by attendants that the abolition of the road tolls had not kicked in.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Private Transport Union (GPRTU) has disclosed that vehicle operators in the country came together to moot the idea to cease the collection of road tolls on public roads and bridges. The GPRTU said in a meeting with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Transport in June early this year, the unions suggested the move to government as a measure to stop revenue leakage.
The General Secretary of GPRTU Godfred Abulbire, speaking to Samuel Mbura on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show explained that the Unions met the Parliamentary Select Committee to address the many concerns of road crashes on the Accra-Kumasi Highway.
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