The increasing encroachment on road pavements and other infrastructure by petty traders and hawkers within the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and other large cities continues to raise road safety concerns, prompting the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) to start a stakeholder engagement to address the menace.
While malfunctioning traffic lights, broken road signs, faded road markings and bad driver behaviour are driving road crashes and deaths, the situation has been worsened by petty traders who obstruct pedestrian walkways by displaying their merchandise.
For over a year now, the Daily Graphic has observed that some traders display their wares on pavements designated as pedestrian walkways, while others pitch camps at bus stops, forcing drivers to park their vehicles on the shoulders of roads.
In some cases, the drivers park their vehicles on both sides of roads, a development that impedes vehicular movement, creates human traffic and puts pedestrians in danger.
The Central Business District of Accra is bursting with such encroachments; the Mallam Market area and the Kaneshie enclave on the Dr Busia Highway, areas around the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, as well as Kwabenya to the Achimota Mall are among the areas where the encroachments are rife, leaving city guards and police personnel overwhelmed.
Some of the other areas in Accra that have gained notoriety for the encroachment on road infrastructure by petty traders include Odorkor Tipper to the main traffic light, Madina, Nima-Mamobi, and Agbogbloshie.
The Graphic Road, which stretches from the intersection at the Farisco Traffic Light on the Kwame Nkrumah Avenue to the Obistebi Lamptey Interchange, is also notorious for the encroachment on road pavements, with a new entrant emerging every day.
Between the Graphic Road overpass, near the Graphic Head Office, up to the Farisco Traffic Light is the epicentre for the illegal trading activities on that street.
Traders display their wares on the pavements and portions of the road leading from the Accra Brewery to the Graphic Press House with impunity, and the activity starts
from about 8 p.m. and continues to the wee hours of the following day.
The encroachments, which started from one end of the dual carriageway, have not only become widespread with many traders joining the fray, but both sides of the road pavements are under siege.
To facilitate traffic flow, the police have had to station their men to direct traffic, as commercial vehicles are also cashing in on the presence of traders and shoppers right on the road.
The joint activities of traders, buyers and commercial vehicles have created chaotic situations, as drivers stop in the middle of the road to load, while illegal and wanton U-turns have also emerged with impunity.
Commercial drivers park their vehicles on both sides of the road beyond the Graphic Press House to the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) area as they wait for passengers to board them.
Pedestrians are left vulnerable as they have to weave their way through a sea of vehicles that run bumper to bumper, while personnel from the Motor Traffic and Transport Division (MTTD) of the Ghana Police direct traffic.
Experiences
A driver of a minibus that plies Accra-Kaneshie, Daniel Obeng, explained to the Daily Graphic that he parked his vehicle on the shoulders of the road around the Graphic House because the bus stop had been encroached upon by traders.
“Drivers are supposed to stop at bus stops to load our cars, but the bus stops are now used by traders for commercial activities and that is why we also park on the shoulders of the road to get passengers,” he said.
A 39-year-old cassava dough seller, Yaa Ntreh, complained that she and other traders displayed their wares on the pavements at the Graphic Press House because the CBD was choked.
“We cannot find space at the CBD to sell our wares, so we decided to sell here.
Also, where we are now is strategic; people can easily locate us and buy our goods,” she said.
In the wake of the lawlessness of the traders and drivers, pedestrians remain vulnerable to road crashes.
“If you are walking from Accra Brewery side towards the COCOBOD road and you are not very careful, drivers can just knock you down. You cannot walk on the pavement because it has been taken over by traders,” 27-year-old Adamu Rufai, a shopper, said.
The Daily Graphic observed that at Agbogbloshie, Nima-Mamobi and the Odorkor Tipper, petty traders have taken over pavements leading to the main traffic lights with yams, furniture, wood products and other merchandise.
At the same time, articulated trucks have been parked on both sides of the major road at these places, making the spaces narrow for vehicles to move freely.
Pedestrian knockdowns
Encroachment on the road infrastructure is problematic because it results in pedestrian knockdowns, which account for 33 per cent of deaths from reported road crashes, according to the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA).
The Daily Graphic’s analysis of road traffic statistics from the NRSA revealed that over the past 35 years (1991 to 2025), 63,599 persons died from reported road crashes across the country, with about 20,988 of those deaths resulting from pedestrian knockdowns.
Law on trading on pavements
The new Road Traffic Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2519) and Road Traffic (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1153) outline several prohibitions designed to keep pavements and vehicular roadways clear of informal commercial activities, hawking and unauthorised vending.
Regulation 142 (Selling Goods on Roads and Pedestrian Walkways) declares it an explicit offence to “sell, display, offer for sale or deliver goods on or alongside a road, on a pedestrian walkway, near a railway crossing, under a blind-corner sign or within an intersection.”
For hawking or selling on roads and walkways, Regulation 142 states that offenders caught displaying, selling or delivering goods on roadsides or pedestrian pathways face “a fine of up to 50 penalty units (approximately GH¢600), imprisonment for as long as three months, or both.”
When the Daily Graphic spoke to the Director-General of the NRSA, Abraham Amaliba, on how to deal with the encroachment on roads, he said the authority had started engaging key stakeholders to tackle the menace.
For instance, he said the NRSA had held a meeting with the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service and actors in the road sector to help stem the tide.
Again, he said the NRSA had held a meeting with all 29 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Greater Accra Region to devise a comprehensive strategy to clear encroachers off the streets.
“Then also, when you trade on the pavement, it moves the pedestrian back onto the road to compete with vehicles and that leads to pedestrian knockdowns and deaths,” he said.
Police action
The Director of Education, Research and Training at the police MTTD, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Alexander Kwaku Obeng, said road safety was about enforcement and the police needed the support of other stakeholders to succeed in enforcing road safety regulations.
“If road markings are faded, it will be difficult for the police to enforce the law in that regard; this is why we are happy that there are plans to upgrade roads and incorporate more road markings,” he said.
ACP Obeng also said MMDAs needed to rise to their responsibility of decongesting the roads by taking traders off the pavements.
He stressed that while the police were willing to enforce the law on traders on the pedestrian walkways, political interference made it difficult.
“Enforcement of road traffic regulations had been the weakest link over the years because of human involvement.
The use of technology is what is doing the magic and that is what we should do more,” he said.
ACP Obeng also said police enforcement of road traffic regulations through digital means was also focused on tackling speeding by drivers since that was the foundation of many crashes.