International Transport Workers Urge Ghana To Invest In Railway Transport

Written by Ann Brown

Mar 16, 2014

Ghana has been urged to invest in railway transport as the best alternative means to support urban transportation in the country.

Joseph Katende, the Regional Secretary of the International Transport Workers (ITF), who is leading a two-member delegation on a visit to the Ghana National Coordinating Committee (NCC) of ITF, said the railway sector needs investment that would propel it to function as a reasonable urban transport.

“Our research indicates that there has not been real investment in the railway sector in Ghana for some time now –yet railway is a better option for transportation systems, especially for a country like Ghana which has high rate of road accidents.”

He explained that South Africa has embraced railway transportation and they are moving very fast with their transportation system giving the people the comfort they needed.

Katende, together with Bayla Sow, the ITF Representative for Africa Francophone and ECOWAS Region, visited the Ghana NCC to support the re-organisation of the Ghanaian branch of the NCC, which was revamped in January after long years of dormancy.

The Ghana NCC now has Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, General Secretary of Maritime and Dockworkers Union (MDC), as the Chairman, Iddrisu Fuseini, General Secretary of General Transport Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU), as Coordinator and Stephen Okudzeto, General Secretary of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) as the Treasurer.

Katende explained that they were in the country to ensure that their “brothers in the transportation sector in Ghana” come on board the ITF, which has had strong roots in Ghana since the latter parts of 1960s to the early 1980s, when its first Africa headquarters was in Ghana.