“You have 14 days to contest”: Police explain how TraffiTech tickets will work
Motorists who receive electronic traffic violation notices through Ghana’s new automated enforcement system will have 14 days to either pay the penalty or contest the notice, the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) has said.
ACP Alexander Kweku Obeng, Director of Education, Research and Training at the MTTD, said motorists would receive photographic and other electronic evidence of the alleged offence alongside the notice.
“When you go online to pay, they give you option to receive the offer. So that we need the photographic evidence of what the driver did with the car,” he said on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Wednesday (16 September).
He said motorists would be able to view evidence, including a six-second video, before deciding whether to pay or contest the ticket.
ACP Obeng said the electronic notice would contain details including the vehicle registration number, name of the registered owner, location, date and time of the alleged offence, the offence committed, the relevant legal provision, the applicable fine and the deadline for payment.
He urged motorists to be alert to fraudulent messages, saying genuine notices would be identifiable by the police sender ID and would direct motorists to the official government payment platform.
“The payment is not to any private person’s phone. It is Ghana.gov.gh,” he said.
According to ACP Obeng, motorists who dispute a notice will have 14 days to contest it online. Regional MTTD offices are also being equipped to handle motorists who genuinely need to contest notices in person.
He said the police would review electronically captured evidence before a notice was issued, with trained personnel in a back office checking the information and validating the alleged offence.
The system will also interface with relevant government databases to identify the registered owner of a vehicle and obtain information needed to process the violation.
ACP Obeng said responsibility for a ticket would initially rest with the registered owner where the vehicle was captured by the automated system.
“If the evidence is in the face of a virtual registration, the ticket will always go to the owner,” he said.
However, where the registered owner was not driving, he said the owner would be expected to identify the person who was driving and arrange for the payment to be made.
He also cautioned vehicle owners who sell their cars without updating ownership records that they could continue receiving traffic notices linked to the vehicle.
ACP Obeng said the law requires a person who sells a vehicle to have their name removed from the relevant records within three weeks to allow the change of ownership to be completed.
He said the police were working with other agencies to improve vehicle ownership and number-plate records as part of the wider digitalisation of government services.
The MTTD director also said measures were being put in place to address problems involving damaged, obscured or improperly displayed number plates, which could make it difficult for cameras to identify vehicles.
On concerns about motorists who may not be digitally literate or have reliable internet access, ACP Obeng said information on the ticket would allow them to make payments through other available channels, including banks.
He said the automated system was designed to minimise human intervention and reduce opportunities for officers or third parties to demand cash in exchange for cancelling or reducing a ticket.
“There’s no allowance for human intervention like that,” he said.
ACP Obeng said the system would also generate performance data, including information that could help the police monitor enforcement and identify areas requiring greater attention.
He said the data would be used alongside crash information and other road-safety indicators to guide future enforcement.
TraffiTech GH is scheduled to enter full implementation on 1 October 2026, with speeding among the first offences targeted by the automated enforcement system.
