Story by Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The General Secretary of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Mr. Godfred Abulbire, has hinted that its members will, from October 29, 2022, adjust transport fares by 19%.
According to him, the increase is due to the recent hikes in fuel prices, coupled with the rising inflation and the current depreciation of the Cedi.
In an interview, Mr. Abulbire stated that the union would issue a statement later to inform commuters about the latest adjustments to fares.
He said the 19% increment was agreed upon by the Union after an extensive discussion with President Akufo-Addo, together with other transport operators across the country.
Mr. Abulbire noted that even though his outfit had a basis to charge more than the agreed 19%, they listened to the plea from President Akufo-Addo to revise their proposed 49%.
“What we should have been asking adequately should have been around 49%. But looking at the economic situation, we had to come down to 25% and then even scale down to 20%, and then just yesterday the sector Minister came up with 16½%.
“After listening to the President, he said all that we’re saying are fact and that there’s nothing there that he’s not aware of. But looking at the situation, the moment fares go up, it affects a lot of things.
And so as a father, the President was asking us to reconsider our decision and see if we could take the 16% offered by the Minister. But we said that was actually a problem… So we all agreed that we’ll take off 1% and we’ll accept 19%, and that’s how the meeting concluded.
We said the 20% was just still a consideration… So we agreed and said we’ll waive off that 1%. Today we’ll be issuing out a communiqué and then it will take effect on Saturday coming 29th October 2022,” the GPRTU General Secretary explained.
