{"id":415319,"date":"2026-01-18T17:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T17:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/415319\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T17:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T17:51:09","slug":"franklin-cudjoe-decries-transport-gridlock-warns-of-drain-on-ghanas-productivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/415319\/","title":{"rendered":"Franklin Cudjoe decries transport gridlock, warns of drain on Ghana\u2019s productivity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Franklin <\/a>Franklin Cudjoe is the Chief Executive Officer of the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education<\/p>\n

President of IMANI Africa, <\/a><\/a>Franklin Cudjoe<\/a>, has warned that Ghana\u2019s worsening transport challenges are imposing a heavy but largely invisible cost on the economy, arguing that slow mobility is reversing the very forces that once powered global economic growth.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post on January 18, 2026, <\/a><\/a>Franklin Cudjoe<\/a> traced civilisation\u2019s progress to advances in transport, from the invention of the wheel to modern rail, aviation and shipping. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe history of economic power has simply been the history of moving people and goods bulkier and faster,\u201d he said, adding that in Ghana today, the wheels that revolutionised civilisations seem to have ground to a halt.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>Franklin Cudjoe<\/a> cited the concept of Marchetti\u2019s Constant, which suggests that humans naturally budget about one hour a day for commuting, to illustrate the scale of Ghana\u2019s transport inefficiency.<\/p>\n

Many Ghanaians are spending more time on roads than at work \u2013 Dr Agyekum-Obeng<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is Ghana\u2019s economy when it can take 1.5 hours to commute from Amasaman to Madina, just 19 kilometres apart?\u201d he asked, describing such delays as a massive, invisible tax on the Gross Domestic Product.<\/p>\n

According to him, the daily struggle begins as early as 3:30 a.m. for thousands of workers who leave home long before dawn to beat traffic. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey aren\u2019t early risers by choice; they are refugees trying to escape the traffic jam,\u201d Cudjoe said, noting that by 6:00 a.m., major routes including Madina\u2013Accra, Tema\u2013Accra, Nsawam\u2013Accra and Kasoa\u2013Accra are already heavily congested.<\/p>\n

He argued that prolonged commuting times leave workers physically and mentally exhausted before the workday begins, undermining productivity and contributing to poor health outcomes. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018faster wheel\u2019 of the Industrial Revolution was meant to liberate human labour; in Ghana, the \u2018slow wheel\u2019 has enslaved it,\u201d he said, linking chronic stress from traffic to rising cases of hypertension, heart disease and stroke, citing data from the Births and Deaths Registry.<\/p>\n

Accra’s traffic to blame for public transport crisis \u2013 GPRTU<\/a><\/p>\n

Cudjoe also highlighted what he described as \u2018logistics purgatory,\u2019 pointing to stalled road projects and the near collapse of Ghana\u2019s rail system. <\/p>\n

He noted that about 95 percent of freight and passenger movement occurs by road, creating a vicious cycle of road damage, slower speeds and higher transport costs. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery hour a truck carrying tomatoes from the north breaks down, the price of those tomatoes rises,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He called for urgent reforms to support Ghana\u2019s 24-Hour Economy agenda, including shifting freight transport to rail, introducing dedicated bus lanes, modernising trotros in collaboration with transport unions, and prioritising the completion of stalled road projects. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe wheel was invented to move us forward, it is time we made it turn again in Ghana,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

Read the full post below:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

MRA\/EB<\/p>\n

One year on: Watch what some Ghanaians are saying about ORAL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Franklin Cudjoe is the Chief Executive Officer of the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education President of IMANI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-415319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}