Acting Director-General of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Abraham Amaliba, says data consistently show that road crashes reduce significantly whenever the Authority embarks on sustained and vigorous public safety campaigns.

Speaking on The Pulse on JoyNews on Friday, January 23, Mr Amaliba said the absence of major nationwide campaigns last year contributed to the worrying road crash figures recorded across the country.

“Statistics or research show that anytime the Authority embarks on vigorous road safety campaigns, the numbers come down,” he stated.

He explained that the NRSA was unable to roll out its usual Easter, New Year and Christmas safety campaigns in 2025 due to funding challenges linked to the restructuring of the Road Fund, which provides the bulk of the Authority’s financing.

Unfortunately, last year we were not able to do the campaigns. We couldn’t do the Easter campaign, New Year campaign, and the December Christmas campaign,” he said.

According to Mr Amaliba, the funding gap arose because the Road Fund responsible for about 95 per cent of NRSA’s funding was undergoing legislative and administrative changes.

“The Road Fund was undergoing some restructuring. There was a bill in Parliament to re-christen it the Road Maintenance Fund. This was passed late last year,” he explained.

He added that delays in setting up a governing board for the newly restructured fund also affected the release of resources to the Authority.

“After that, we had to put together a board for the Road Fund. Luckily for us, this has been done now, and this year we are assured of funding,” he said.

Mr Amaliba disclosed that he has received firm assurances that funding will be released imminently, allowing the Authority to resume its full-scale public education and enforcement support activities.

“I’ve spoken to the new administrator of the Road Fund, and he has assured us that by next week, we shall receive our funding,” he noted.

Beyond funding challenges, the Acting Director-General pointed to growing indiscipline among both drivers and pedestrians as a major contributor to road crashes in Ghana.

“There is indiscipline on the part of drivers and indiscipline on the part of pedestrians. Some pedestrians walk on the street without paying particular attention to vehicles,” he said.

He also cited distracted riding and driving, especially the use of mobile phones and headphones by motorbike riders, as well as speeding and weak enforcement of traffic regulations, as key factors pushing crash numbers up.

“Phones, people riding on motorbikes with headphones, overspeeding, and lack of enforcement of traffic regulations all these contribute to road crashes,” Mr Amaliba explained.

The NRSA has repeatedly called for stronger collaboration between road users, law enforcement agencies and policymakers as Ghana continues efforts to reduce road fatalities and injuries nationwide.