The Chief Executive Officer of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, Julius Neequaye Kotey, has raised concerns about how number plates are being produced and sold in Ghana without proper checks.
Speaking on TV3’s Hot Issues, Kotey said the current system allows too many people and companies to emboss number plates without verification.
“It’s an affront to the works of DVLA that sometimes the cars are on the streets with number plates but we don’t have information on them, so one may ask how?” he said.
He explained that there are many private companies involved in the embossment of number plates across the country.
“There are about 154 companies that do embossment of number plates and they are scattered all over the place,” he stated.
Kotey said these companies do not follow proper procedures before producing plates.
“You go there, you give them the number, they don’t do any background checks, they don’t request for any documentation, all they do is that they want money, so they just emboss the number they want for you,” he said.
According to him, this practice has created serious gaps in vehicle identification and tracking.
He described the situation as dangerous for road safety and national security, saying the system makes it easy for unregistered or untraceable vehicles to operate freely.
“The era where anyone anywhere has a machine so they can emboss number plate is what we want to do away with,” Kotey added.
