TRANSPORT SYSTEMS IN GHANA
Rapid urbanisation across Africa brings opportunities, but it also puts pressure on transport systems. Rising emissions, pollution and congestion are just some of the challenges transport planners face. In the cities of Accra and Kumasi in Ghana, basic services such as markets, healthcare facilities and primary schools are out of reach for many people who walk and use popular transport—minibuses known as trotros. People who can afford cars opt for them, as they offer greater access to services, but they also represent the most unsustainable mode of transport.
Policy choices are therefore crucial in shaping future mobility for more liveable cities in Ghana. Decision makers in Accra and Kumasi, alongside development partners, are reflecting on redesigning the transport system. To support this work, new data and evidence pinpoints four levers to help transport systems overcome rising emissions, pollution, and congestion, and at the same time improve quality of life, economic opportunities, and social inclusion for city residents.
IDENTIFY ACCESSIBILITY GAPS
Transport is all about connecting people to opportunities. Markets, for example, are vital opportunities for communities. They are places where people can access food, work, and connect socially. Yet, 61% of Accra’s population lives in an area where it is impossible to reach any market on foot within 30 minutes. Only 20% can access a single market and 18% can access more than one market within a 30-minute walk. Those living on the periphery face greater accessibility gaps; not a single market is accessible even after a 90-minute walk.
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Secretariat SAHEL AND WEST AFRICANumber of markets accessible on foot within 30 minutes in greater Accra
Note: Accra is divided into 500-metre grid cells, where red dots represent the locations of markets, both formal and informal. A dark blue cell indicates that no markets can be reached within a 30-minute walk from that cell, considering the condition and connectivity of the road network. Conversely, lighter blues and pink indicate areas where individuals can reach one or more markets on foot within the designated 30-minute timeframe. The central Accra area district boundaries are highlighted in yellow.
Source: Authors’ calculations, using spatial data inputs from Open Street Map, 2022; European Commission; et al., 2021; MapIT, 2023; DigitalTransport4Africa, 2015.
Access to markets improves when travelling via trotros in central Accra but diminishes towards the periphery. Similar challenges exist when trying to reach primary schools or healthcare facilities on foot or via trotros. Cars offer the best access to services, but come with significant trade-offs: emissions, air pollution and congestion. Overall, approximately 28% of the greater Accra population live in areas where it is difficult to access any of these crucial services, particularly on the periphery. Filling in these accessibility gaps is vital to allow people to avail of the range of opportunities, services, and social networks that their cities have to offer.
Number of markets accessible by car, trotros and walking within 30 minutes in central Accra
Note: Accra is divided into 500-metre grid cells, where red dots represent the locations of markets, both formal and informal. A dark blue grid cell indicates that no markets can be reached within a 30-minute walk from that cell. Conversely, lighter blues to pink cells indicate areas where individuals can reach one or more markets within the designated 30-minute timeframe. Source: Authors’ calculations using Open Street Map, 2022; European Commission; et al., 2021; MapIT, 2023; DigitalTransport4Africa, 2015.
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BRING SERVICES CLOSER TO WHERE PEOPLE LIVE, WITH BETTER INTEGRATION OF TRANSPORT AND LAND-USE PLANNING
While the accessibility gaps in Accra and Kumasi stem largely from “public transport” falling short of demand, another key factor is the inadequate proximity between where people live and essential services. Over the past 35 years, greater Accra has undergone remarkable growth; its built-up area has increased by 400%. Most of this growth resulted in residential developments in peripheral areas. However, this expansion was not accompanied by the colocation of essential services within these residential areas. The result is dense peri-urban residential developments situated far from services, sometimes exceeding nine kilometres. The yellow dots in the map pinpoint areas that have high population densities and are far from a primary school, health care facility, or a market. Creating proximity between where people live and the location of services can improve accessibility, but it requires effective co-ordination between land-use and transport planning to ensure more effective use of urban space and resources.
Potential service delivery zones in Accra
Some densely populated areas far from where services are located, in yellow.
Note: Distance to essential services (black dots) combined with population density. Yellow dots show some potential locations for local service delivery zones.
Source: Population estimations (Sirko et al., 2021) and points of interest (MapIT, 2023).
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IMPROVE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR MASS TRANSIT AND ACTIVE MODES
In the rapidly expanding built environment, most of the roads on the periphery are unpaved and secondary roads, representing a barrier for extensions to the trotro network and mass transit. Walking via unpaved roads is difficult and is compounded by low connectivity. In Accra, 45% of the urban landscape falls below the 45 intersections per km2 walkability threshold. Furthermore, extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall and intense heat, can have significant impacts on unpaved roads, making them difficult to navigate via any mode. Other infrastructure, such as sidewalks and lighting are also lacking.
Investing in infrastructure for mass transit and walking is critical given that 95% of Accra’s population rely primarily on walking and trotros for daily travel. Cars, on the other hand, are used by less than 1% of the city’s population but they occupy 60% of road space and taxis another 15%. Therefore 75% of roadspace is occupied by minority car-users and 25% is shared by pedestrians, trotros, occasional bikers, motorcycles, and three-wheelers in some neighbourhoods. Reallocating roadspace and improving infrastructure to better serve sustainable modes such as public transport and active modes can move more people and take up significantly less roadspace than cars.
Biking holds immense potential to boost accessibility if infrastructure could be improved. 35% of the population could gain access to a primary school within 30 minutes when using a bike over walking. Likewise, 24% more individuals would gain access to at least one healthcare facility and 36% more people could conveniently reach a market within half an hour.
Intersections per km² across Accra
Source: Authors’ calculations using Open Street Map, 2022 and MapIT, 2023.
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INTEGRATE A GENDER LENS INTO TRANSPORT PLANNING
Different segments of society are impacted more than others by accessibility gaps to services. Gender, income, age, employment status, degree of (dis) ability, class and the intersection of these variables all influence how individuals experience mobility. In Accra and Kumasi, women, particularly within lowincome groups, resort to modes offering the least access to services—walking and trotros. This hampers their ability to fulfill their multifaceted roles in society as active participants in the labour market and primary caregivers. Caregiving trips include escorting children to and from school, household shopping, and caring for sick or elderly relatives, otherwise known as “mobility of care”. These trips account for the second highest proportion of daily travel in both cities, and represent a higher proportion of trips made by women than by men.
Despite its importance in daily travel, the transport system is not adapted for mobility of care, such as travelling with children. Travellers typically find themselves refused entry into trotros when accompanied by children as trotro operators wish to avoid revenue loss tied to passengers under 12 (traditionally free riders) as well as any delays in the boarding and alighting process. Women accompanying children to and from school or elsewhere, therefore end up either walking long distances, paying extra for a taxi, or relying on private vehicles for daily transportation—neither a sustainable nor equitable solution.
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Proportion of trips by transport modes across income groups in Accra and Kumasi
Ghanaian Cedi (GHS)
A higher proportion of women’s daily travel is dedicated to mobility of care across all income groups in Accra
In contrast, women with higher incomes in Accra opt for cars for their daily travel, regardless of trip length or purpose, signalling a considerable risk of locking in cars as incomes rise. Targeted investments and interventions are required, therefore, to boost the accessibility of non-car modes and integrate gendered design features such as placing bus stops in proximity to key facilities like schools, and implementing fare structures that acknowledge dependents and trips with multiple stops.
Planning and designing transport systems that meet the specific mobility needs of women and men, requires gender-sensitive data collection, analysis and dialogue. Engaging women and creating space for their voices in planning processes will be especially important given the under-representation of women in the transport sector. Applying a gender lens to transport planning can not only foster a more sustainable and inclusive transport system, it can also support women’s participation in economic and social life.
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Ghanaian Cedi (GHS)
This work was funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, carried out in close collaboration with the Greater Accra Public Transport Authority (Alex Johnson), University of Ghana (Dr. Ernest Agyemang, and Professor Kwadwo Owusu), and Ghanaian researchers from the University of Manchester (Professor Ransford Antwi Acheampong and Augustine Yaw Asuah). Additional inputs were provided by the OECD International Transport Forum (Yaroslav Kholodov and Nick Carros) and the Embassy of Switzerland in Ghana (Andrew Boamah Asare). A stakeholder workshop, spearheaded by the Greater Accra Public Transport Authority and Ministry of Local Government, will convene in Accra. During this event, the findings will be disseminated, and stakeholders will engage in shaping a forward-looking vision for Accra’s transportation system.
INTERESTED IN REPLICATING THIS STUDY ELSEWHERE?
If you are interested in sustainable, accessible, and inclusive transport systems and would like to see this analysis replicated in another African city, we invite you contact us at the Sahel and West Africa Club. Valuable lessons from the Ghanaian experience can inform transport policies for other urban centres across the African continent.
Email address: brile.anderson@oecd.org
The Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC) is an international platform whose Secretariat is hosted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). SWAC produces and maps data, provides informed analyses and facilitates strategic dialogue, to help better anticipate transformations in the region and their territorial impacts. It promotes contextualised policies as levers for regional integration, sustainable development and stability.
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