President Mahama Vows to Enforce Strict Weight Limits on Trucks to Protect Ghana’s Roads
President John Dramani Mahama has announced plans to introduce strict weight restrictions on heavy-duty trucks in a bid to preserve Ghana’s road infrastructure and prevent premature deterioration caused by overloading.
Speaking at the sod cutting ceremony for the dualization of Takoradi-Cape Coast road on Tuesday, October 21,2025, President Mahama expressed concern over the rapid destruction of newly constructed roads due to overloaded vehicles, stressing that the government would not continue to spend huge sums of taxpayers’ money on road repairs only for them to be damaged within a few years.
“We cannot continue to invest significant amounts of money in improving our road network only for transporters to overload their trucks and destroy these roads within three to five years,” the President said. “We have seen new roads that are built, and once these overloaded trucks pass on them, within a few years, the road is finished.”
President Mahama cited Burkina Faso as an example of effective road protection policy, noting that the country recently introduced strict regulations on truck length and width. He explained that some Ghanaian trucks are now forced to offload excess cargo before entering Burkina Faso due to these rules.
“Recently, Burkina Faso implemented a new weight regulation, and so your trailer must not be longer or wider than a certain length,” he said. “What happens now is that trucks load from Takoradi and Tema and overload, but when they get to the Burkina Faso border, they cannot enter. They have to bring three trucks from Burkina Faso and offload one truck’s load into three before they can continue.”
The President expressed dismay that some trucks in Ghana carry as much as 120 tons, far above the 50-ton limit that most roads are designed to support.
“There is no road you can construct that will stand 120 tons per truck,” he cautioned. “And so I’ve told the Roads Minister, and it’s going to be announced firmly in the budget — we must implement weight restrictions so that the roads we build can last.”
President Mahama revealed that government will engage with key industry stakeholders — including the Drivers’ Union and transporters — to ensure smooth implementation and compliance.
“We are going to introduce strict weight limitations next year so that these investments we are making in our road sector will last for a lifetime,” he emphasized. “We are not going to waste taxpayers’ money repairing roads destroyed by people who want to make as much money as possible by overloading their trucks.”
He concluded with a firm warning to transport operators that the new policy will be enforced without compromise.
“I’m sending a clear signal — we will engage all stakeholders in the sector, but we will enforce the weight limits for our trucks so that they don’t overload and destroy our roads,” President Mahama stated.
The upcoming budget is expected to outline the details of the new road weight regulations and enforcement mechanisms, which the government says will help protect Ghana’s infrastructure and reduce maintenance costs.
