The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) will cease displaying the year of registration of vehicles on number plates from next year.

The new system, according to the Chief Executive of the DVLA, Julius Neequaye Kotey, will instead only identify vehicles by the region in which they were registered, for example, "Greater Accra" written on top of the plate, followed by the vehicle's unique four-digit number and a code showing the zone within which the vehicle was registered.

For example, a vehicle registered within the Adenta zone in Greater Accra will have an "AD" code at the end of the four-digit unique number, replacing where the year of registration, for example, "25," would have been displayed.

Mr. Julius Neequaye Kotey disclosed this during a television interview with Channel One TV on the programme Face to Face, which aired on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, and was monitored by Graphic Online.

He said the change will introduce regional names at the top of plates, followed by area codes showing which DVLA office processed the registration.

According to Mr. Kotey, Ghana is the only country in the world that displays the year of registration on vehicle plates.

“There is no country in the world that puts the year at the end [of the plate],” he said.

“When you go to the US, the UK, or Germany, there is no single country that does this,” he said.

Under the new system, a Greater Accra plate would display “Greater Accra” at the top, with “GR 2224-AD” below, where GR represents Greater Accra Region and AD shows the Adenta office. An Ashanti Region plate would bear “Ashanti” on top and follow the format “AS 3520-KM,” with AS for Ashanti and KM representing Kumasi.

“Every region will have the name on top of it,” Mr. Kotey explained. “So Greater Accra, the region code of Greater, can be GR. After that, where the year of registration used to be, will now be the area code.”

When asked if the reform would make it easier to trace vehicles involved in crimes, Mr. Kotey said specific plate identification was more effective than year-based descriptions.

“If you tell me someone has done a hit and run and the car is registered in 2025, there are a lot of 2025 cars in the system. How will I know the car? If you give the exact number, it is easier for DVLA to identify the person.”

Mr. Kotey said the change is also aimed at curbing registration avoidance, which he said has resulted in many people opting to use the "DV" plates for private use and driving in town.

He also advised vehicle owners not to delay registering their vehicles, expecting year-specific plates. “If you want to buy a car this year and leave it till [registration in 2026] so that you have 26 written on it in January, forget it, you won’t get it. Whether your car is 2022 registered or 2001 registered, we will all have the same format.”

The change forms part of new DVLA initiatives under Mr. Kotey's leadership.

He, however, did not give details on how this would help prevent or resolve a possible conflict of duplicate number plates appearing on vehicles registered in different years from the same region and zone.

Except for that, he stressed that the new move was to discourage people from refraining from registering their vehicles because sometimes they are looking at resale value, depending on the year of registration.

A vehicle with the latest year of registration plate in Ghana tends to have a higher resale value than those with older years.

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But for such vehicle owners, Mr. Kotey said the DVLA was going to introduce an option where they can purchase "DV" plates for use within a year, but it will be offered at an expensive price, different from what is offered to vehicle dealers.

History of number plates in Ghana

Before 2009, Ghana used different license plates that included a two-letter code indicating the region and a single letter at the end to denote the year of registration. 

It was in 1994 that the single-letter code and a numeric code were used, before phasing it out in 2009 when the single-alphabet code reached "Z."

For example, GR for Greater Accra and P as the year of registration 1998, Q for 1999, R for 2000, S for 2001, T for 2002, U for 2003, V for 2004, W for 2005, X for 2006, Y for 2007, and Z for 2008. 

When the decision was taken in 1994 to change the plates, all vehicles in the system were re-registered within three years, from 1994 to 1997, from "A," "B," "C," and "D" to "N" in 1997. Then the "P" started in 1998 and the "Q" in 1999.

Below are the regional codes that are already in the system and are being used.

Below are the codes for the various regions in Ghana:

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AC, AE, AK, AP, AS, AW = Ashanti Region 

BA, BR, BW = Bono Region

BT = Bono East Region

CR = Central Region

EN, ER, ES = Eastern Region

GB, GC, GE, GG, GH, GL, GM, GN, GT, GS, GW, GX, GY = Greater Accra Region

NR = Northern Region

UE = Upper East Region

UW = Upper West Region

VA, VD, VR = Volta Region

WR, WT = Western Region