TotaEnergies Foundation and TotalEnergies Ghana celebrated their support for a training programme for motorcycle riders that has been carried out in Accra by the road safety NGO Amend on Thursday, December 2.
The World Health Organization estimates that over 1,800 persons are killed on Ghana’s roads every year, though this number is higher than the official government figures.
Africa has the world’s highest road traffic injury rates, and the rates are rising as the continent develops and mobilizes. In Ghana, as throughout Africa, motorcycle riders suffer extremely high rates of road traffic injury.
Luckily, the measures to stop these road traffic accidents are properly established, and include measures like the comprehensive education and high quality training for motorcycle riders, which have been provided as part of this project.
The programme that was implemented focused on 84 courier and dispatch riders in Accra from various organizations: Republic Bank, Ghana Health Service, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), the Judicial Service, GIMPA, Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), Prudential Bank, Consolidated Shipping Agencies Limited (CONSHIP), National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and the Food & Drugs Authority.
The training offered practical lessons geared toward enhancing expertise which riders are identified to lack in addition to addressing widespread behavioral errors. Exercises included the proper use of junctions and roundabouts, safe overtaking and the way to stop quickly in an emergency, for instance if a school child steps onto the road in front of the motorcycle.
At the ceremony, all riders who participated in the program obtained high-quality helmets and graduation certificates.
This work is part of a five-country program supported by the TotalEnergies Foundation. The motorcycle training programme has already been carried out in Tanzania, Togo and Senegal and will be carried out in Cameroon, Mozambique, Mauritania and Madagascar in 2022.
Event attendees included the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and varied representatives of the companies that gladly released their riders for training.