Recent traffic jam and productivity in Ghana

The recent traffic jam in Ghana, especially in the capital, has been overwhelming. The nation I believe is losing millions of dollars due to traffic jam. Workers in Accra for instance spend almost 3 hours to get to their workplace in the morning and again spend the same number of hours, if not more, to get home after a hard day's work. This of course is no news to those who commute to Accra central each day from various locations in Greater Accra.

This is undoubtedly affecting the productivity of both private and public companies negatively. Work doesn't start early due to lateness but ends early because most people don't want to be caught up in the heavy traffic. People who tend to send office work home probably are not able to complete them because they reach their destination more tired than they have been throughout the day. In the end, targets are not being met, workers are being laid off, exports are low whiles imports are high because we are not able to produce enough and government losses huge amounts of taxes and foreign exchange.

Government intervention has gone a lup the challenge to expand our road networks and improve our public transport system, it will go a long way to increase productivity in Ghana and therefore attract more local and foreign investments and at the end, more jobs will be created for the people and this will put a lot of money in the government's coffers in the form of taxes for other developmental projects.