Road safety promotes national development

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has described road traffic accidents as a global pandemic and a critical public health issue that must be addressed urgently because of its economic consequences.

He noted that road safety was the bedrock of national economic development, and every worthwhile action must be adopted to curb or reduce traffic fatalities.

Speaking at the maiden edition of the Kofi Annan Road Safety Awards held in Accra on Wednesday, President Akufo-Addo pointed out that the economic damage from road accidents could be overwhelming for any country, requiring concerted efforts for effective and sustainable prevention.

“We must see road traffic accidents as a global pandemic and assume an equally proactive and responsive attitude to deal with it,” he said.

The objective of the Kofi Annan Road Safety Award is to motivate key stakeholders- governments, private sector, and civil organizations- to develop and implement innovative and outstanding initiatives to save lives on African roads.

Five African countries that performed well during the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety between 2011 and 2020, were recognised for making for outstanding contributions to road safety in Africa during that period.

Ghana was honoured with the award of Excellence in the implementation of the Africa Road Safety Action Plan while South Africa won the award of Leadership in Mobilising Resources for Road Safety.

Nigeria won the Excellence in Road Safety Management award, with the Leadership in Road Safety Data Management and the Leadership in the Ratification of the Africa Road Safety Charter awards going to the Kingdom of Morocco and Namibia respectively.

The event was attended by ministers of recipient countries and their delegations, the Un Special Envoy for Road Safety Jean Todt, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Dr Versa Songwe, senior leadership of the Kofi Annan Foundation, representatives of the World bank, African Union Commission, and the African Development Bank.

President Akufo-Addo urged African countries to develop and implement innovative initiatives to address road accidents because the continent was undergoing a rapid urban transition.

With about 50 percent of its population projected to live in urban areas by 2030, he said the situation called for creative and proactive thinking to arrest the negative impacts of road transport associated with urbanisation.

“We need every African alive to support our development agenda… We need the energies, creativity, and the can-do attitude of the vibrant youth to build the Africa we want.

“We cannot discount the experiences of our productive force, as well as the potential of our children,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that even though Ghana’s road traffic situation was not satisfactory, “we remain committed to scaling up our investment in road safety initiatives and building partnerships that will help engineer improvements.”

He expressed the government’s commitment to invest in improving the legislative, institutional and logistical capacity of Ghana to address road accidents

The President stressed the need for the award ceremony to be sustained to encourage governments on the continent to learn from global best practices.

“Let us be inspired by these awards and drive positive changes in our respective countries,” he said.

The Minister for Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, who also described road accidents as a worldwide epidemic, stressed the need to create a road safety culture in Ghana by designing and constructing safe roads, and educating the public on road safety.

He called for a proactive approach to addressing the problems to save lives.

Mrs Nane Maria Annan, the wife of the late Kofi Annan, who addressed the gathering virtually, urged a strong commitment at the political level to ensure safety on roads.

She called on the people of Africa to get involved in the fight for road safety to curb traffic fatalities and injuries.