Okada riders association rejects Akufo-Addo's mini cars

• Okada riders have rejected the government's mini cars
• Association says they want to regularize their business
• Government has introduced some mini cars for rental purchase

Popularly known as 'Okada', commercial motorcycle riders have pledged to reject government-provided quadricycles for their operations.

According to the Okada Riders Association, the initiative is not a permanent substitute for their business.

The program, led by the Coastal Development Authority, is meant to help commercial motorcycle riders to drop their trade for a Bajaj Qute vehicle.

This will be given on hire-purchase basis to the riders and will speed up the processes to gradually phase out the 'Okada' business.

But speaking on Accra-based City FM, Okada Riders Association president Michael Kofi Owusu explained that the government was missing his point.

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"None of them are willing to use any car for anything because it's not about the car," he added on Friday, 22 October.

He stressed that they need to regularize their current business to streamline their activities.

Mr. Owusu also argued that eliminating the 'okada' business would not be necessary to ease the country's growing road traffic congestion.

"This [Bajaj Qute vehicle] will add to the slow moving vehicles as they too must be involved in the traffic and all that."

According to the association, these issues, including the lack of training for riders, could have been adequately resolved if the government had engaged them in decision-making.

Reacting to the development, the Coastal Development Authority expressed optimism that the initiative will move forward gradually. CODA's chief executive, Jerry Ahmed Shaibu, said the vehicles are also over-subscribed as some 70 commercial motorcycle riders have already benefited from the new cars.

Mr. Shaibu considers safety to be paramount in the activities of riders who must not compromise with the dangers posed by riding the 'Okada'.

Source: YEN.com.gh