A 50 million revolving transport financing scheme launched in 2007 collapsed because of widespread loan defaults, a senior banking executive at Stanbic Bank, Mawuko Afadzinu, revealed as stakeholders renewed calls for discipline and data-driven reform in Ghana’s transport sector.
Speaking at the Graphic Business and Stanbic Bank Ghana Breakfast Meeting on 24 February 2026, Mawuko Afadzinu, Executive Head of Business and Marketing at the Bank, said the initiative had been designed as a self-sustaining model to modernise public transport.
“The vision was that beneficiaries would pay 10% upfront and repay within four years, allowing the fund to revolve and finance more buses, But there were huge defaults, which undermined what could have been a transformative model.” he said.
Afadzinu stressed that rebuilding trust and strengthening discipline in financial agreements would be essential to reviving similar partnerships in future.
On the other hand, from academia, Professor Enoch F. Sam, Director of Research, Innovation and Development at the University of Education, Winneba, called for data-driven reforms to guide transport policy.
He added that, “We must first understand how people move and why, bulk cargo should shift to rail and water transport to reduce pressure on roads.”
Professor Enoch also urged authorities to integrate informal minibus operators as feeder services to high-capacity bus systems, rather than excluding them abruptly.
Stakeholders concluded that meaningful reform would depend not only on policy direction, but also on disciplined implementation and shared responsibility among government, financiers, operators and commuters.
