The government is set to reduce the minimum age requirement for commercial motorcycle and tricycle riders—commonly referred to as okada operators—from 25 to 21 years, as part of proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Regulation, 2012 (L.I. 2180).
The change forms part of broader efforts to legalise and regulate the use of motorcycles and tricycles for fare-paying passenger services in Ghana.
Transport Minister, Joseph Bukari Nikpe, disclosed the development on the sidelines of the Transport and Logistics Sector CEOs Breakfast Meeting hosted by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT).
He said the age-limit adjustment is included in a revised memo that has been submitted to Cabinet for approval.
“We’re at the tail end of it. It will soon be laid before the subsidiary and legislative committee and after that it will be heading towards parliament for approval. There were issues that took us back a little. If you’ll recall there were a lot of concerns about the age-limit. The age limit we were looking at 25 but others felt it was too high. And so It has taken us back for me to prepare and send another amendment. And so I have presented it to Cabinet for us to look at how we’ll look at the age in general for commercial purposes and bring it down from 25 to 21.”
He added that following extensive stakeholder consultations, there was a strong consensus to reduce the age to 21 for commercial motorcycle and tricycle operations.
“Within the stakeholder consultations that we’ve had everybody is recommending that we should look at the age limit of 25 and bring it down to to 21. So I have just submitted a memo to Cabinet and very soon if it is approved we’ll take it onboard so that the law will be amended in that totality to also reduce the age of doing commercial business when it comes to driving and motor-cycle riding,” Mr. Nikpe noted.
The proposed legal reforms are part of government’s ongoing attempts to formalise the growing okada sector, which has remained largely unregulated despite its popularity, especially in peri-urban and rural communities.
The revised regulations, once passed, are expected to outline licensing conditions, safety standards, and operational guidelines for riders engaged in passenger transport, aimed at improving road safety and streamlining the sector.
