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The Ministry of Transport has rolled out a nationwide sensitization effort to alert drivers, passengers and preachers about fresh rules that prohibit causing a nuisance, including preaching or hawking, inside public or commercial vehicles while they are moving. Parliament approved the Road Traffic Regulations 2026 on May 28 after passing the Road Traffic Amendment Act the previous year, placing the offence under a wider safety framework that substantially increases earlier penalties. Offenders now face fines of 10 to 50 penalty units, amounting to between GH¢120 and GH¢600, imprisonment for as long as eight months, or both, according to the legislation detailed across multiple outlets including Pulse Ghana.
The prohibition originally appeared in 2012 regulations but attracted little enforcement, allowing the practice to persist on trotros and long-distance buses, Modern Ghana reported. The current drive, which began on September 10, seeks to change that pattern by educating transport operators and the public on the updated requirements. Transport Minister Joseph Bukari Nikpe stated that every stakeholder in the sector must clearly understand the law and its operational details, a point echoed in the ministry’s public announcements.
Preaching remains a routine element of travel on Ghana’s commercial minibuses, where pastors often board to deliver messages of salvation, lead prayers and occasionally solicit offerings from riders. Pastor Boateng, a 61-year-old minister at Gospel Light church who has preached on vehicles departing from Neoplan station since 2023, told the BBC he targets those unable to attend Sunday services. “I preach on commercial vehicles because not everyone is able to go to church on Sunday. There are a lot of passengers who need our message of salvation to repent from their sins. We even heal the sick on some buses,” Boateng said.
The regulations treat the restriction as faith-neutral, applying equally to any religious preaching or commercial activity that distracts the driver or disturbs passengers, according to summaries published by Citizen Digital and Coleman Publications. Authorities cite road safety and passenger comfort as the central concerns, noting that such nuisances can contribute to divided attention in a sector already burdened by high traffic volumes. The education campaign forms part of a larger effort to address more than two dozen traffic offences ranging from overloading to unauthorised stopping.
Social media and public commentary have shown divided views, with some commuters expressing relief at the prospect of quieter journeys while religious voices raise questions about limits on outreach, reports from GhanaWeb and Modern Ghana indicated. Comparable discussions have surfaced in Nigeria, where proposed road safety amendments prompted Christian elders to urge the president to reject provisions they viewed as restricting religious liberty, the Christian Daily International reported. Ghanaian officials have clarified that the rule is confined to activity inside moving vehicles and leaves open other avenues for public expression.
The updated legal instrument builds directly on the 2012 framework by embedding the offence within tougher enforcement mechanisms and pairing it with a concerted awareness push, Nkonkonsa.com noted. Drivers and vehicle operators can also face sanctions if they permit such activities, extending accountability across the transport chain. Parliament’s approval in May finalised the shift toward stricter compliance after the amendment act received presidential assent in December 2025.
