The hidden cost of transportation on workers and students

…and why enforcement alone is not enough

By Ebenezer OTOBOAH

A few weeks ago, I boarded a bus from Kasoa to Accra before 5:00 a.m. The fare had increased — again. There was no announcement, no explanation, and no official notice posted at the station. By the time I arrived in the city, I was already tired, frustrated, and poorer than I had planned to be.

This experience is not unique.

It is the daily reality of thousands of Ghanaian workers and students whose lives are shaped, and often constrained, by the rising cost of transportation. Transportation in Ghana has quietly become one of the most significant threats to productivity, access to opportunity, and social mobility.

While transport fares continue to rise unpredictably, wages, student allowances, and household incomes have remained largely stagnant. For many commuters, getting to work or school now feels less like a routine and more like a financial and emotional burden.

Workers living on the outskirts of major cities such as Accra, Tema, and Kumasi spend a substantial portion of their income on transportation alone.

Informal surveys and commuter experiences suggest that some workers spend 20–30 percent of their monthly earnings just to get to and from work. This level of expenditure leaves little room for savings, healthcare, childcare, or emergencies.

Many workers arrive late not because they are careless or undisciplined, but because transport costs force them to ration trips, wait for cheaper options, or endure long delays. Others quietly turn down better-paying jobs simply because the commute would wipe out the financial benefit.

Students are among the hardest hit.

From Madina to Legon, Amasaman to Kaneshie, and Kasoa to central Accra, thousands of tertiary students rely entirely on public transport.

Sudden fare hikes directly affect punctuality, attendance, and concentration.  A student who spends hours negotiating fares, changing buses, or arguing with conductors arrives in class mentally drained.

For students from low-income households, transportation has become an unspoken but powerful barrier to education, threatening academic performance and long-term prospects.

Beyond the financial strain lies a serious physical and mental toll. Long hours in traffic, overcrowded vehicles, poor road conditions, and daily disputes over fares exhaust commuters before their day even begins. Productivity suffers in offices, markets, and workshops. Learning suffers in lecture halls.

Yet the economic cost of this daily exhaustion is rarely factored into national productivity or development conversations.

What frustrates commuters most is the lack of transparency and accountability

in fare setting. Even when fuel prices decline, transport fares often remain unchanged. In May 2025, for instance, the Ministry of Transport and transport unions announced a 15 percent reduction in public transport fares following a drop in fuel prices.

Despite this agreement, many operators continued charging the old or even higher rates, leaving passengers confused and powerless. In response to mounting public complaints, recent developments suggest a renewed enforcement effort.

The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), working with the Ghana Police Service, has intensified operations to curb arbitrary fare hikes.

Across Accra and its surrounding areas, dozens of drivers and conductors have been arrested for charging unapproved fares. Vehicles have been impounded, and suspects handed over to the Motor Traffic and Transport Department for prosecution.

These actions, including arrests at terminals in Amasaman, the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, and other transport hubs, signal an acknowledgment that the problem can no longer be ignored.

While these enforcement actions are welcome, they expose a deeper truth: arrests alone cannot fix a broken system.

The persistence of fare abuses points to structural weaknesses — weak monitoring, fragmented oversight, limited commuter education, and an urban transport system stretched beyond capacity.

Institutions such as the Ministry of Transport, Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies, and law enforcement agencies often operate in silos, while commuters lack clear, accessible channels to report abuse or verify approved fares in real time.

The long-term consequences of unchecked transport costs are deeply concerning. High commuting expenses entrench inequality by limiting access to jobs, education, and services to those who can afford to live closer to city centres.

Those pushed to the urban fringes are systematically excluded, widening the gap between rich and poor and slowing national development.

Over time, cities become less inclusive, less productive, and more divided. If Ghana is serious about inclusive growth and youth development, transportation must be treated as a national priority, not an afterthought.

Beyond enforcement, the country needs clear and publicly accessible faresetting mechanisms, stronger commuter protection frameworks, and sustained investment in affordable, reliable mass transit systems.

Urban planning must deliberately link housing, education, and employment so that opportunity is not restricted by geography.

Transportation should connect people to opportunity, not drain them of it.  Until comprehensive reforms accompany enforcement efforts, Ghanaian workers and students will continue to pay a hidden price — one measured not only in cedis, but in lost time, reduced productivity, and unrealised potential.

That is a cost the nation can no longer afford to ignore.

The writer is a statistician with a background in data analysis, having studied Statistics at the university. As a concerned citizen who faces the daily struggles of transportation in Ghana, he is keenly aware of how rising transport costs impact productivity, access to education, and social mobility. 

His academic training in statistics allows him to analyse and understand the broader economic implications of these challenges, which fuels his passion for advocating for systemic change in the country’s transport sector.

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Contact: 0592515044

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