By Benjamin Nii Nai Anyetei
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) has announced that all vehicles in Ghana will receive new RFID-compliant number plates beginning April 1, 2026, as part of efforts to digitise vehicle identification and enhance road management systems nationwide.
The new plates, equipped with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, will enable authorities to digitally scan and identify vehicles for electronic tolling, speed monitoring, and traffic law enforcement.
According to the DVLA, the rollout will be implemented in phases, starting with new vehicle registrations from January 1, 2026, followed by the re-registration of all existing vehicles from April 1, 2026.
DVLA Chief Executive, Mr Julius Neequaye Kotey, said the reform represents a major milestone in Ghana’s transport digitisation agenda. He explained that the new system will replace the existing format, which displays the year of registration, with a zonal code-based design.
“Each plate will indicate the region and zone where the vehicle was registered — for instance, a vehicle registered in the Adenta zone of Greater Accra will end with the code ‘AD’, replacing the year display such as ‘25’ for 2025,” he said.
The DVLA boss added that the reform will also address the abuse of “DV” (Defective Vehicle) plates, which are often misused by private vehicle owners. The Authority is introducing new DV and Temporary (TMP) plates, alongside a special sticker system to identify vehicles that are not yet ready for road use.
The new measures are expected to improve road safety, streamline vehicle tracking, and strengthen law enforcement efforts by integrating vehicle data into Ghana’s digital transport infrastructure.
This initiative follows the DVLA’s earlier announcement to abolish the display of registration years on number plates starting January 2026.
