President John Dramani Mahama has clarified the provision under the Road Traffic Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2519), which prohibits preaching and hawking in moving public and commercial vehicles.
He explained that the law only prohibited these activities in moving public and commercial vehicles, and not in vehicles that are stationary.
"People say we are prohibiting people from preaching and hawking in buses. We have not said so. If a bus is parked at a station loading passengers, you can enter and preach the word of God (either a Christian or Islamic Cleric), or sell any product you have, but all we are saying is that, as soon as the bus starts moving, such activities must stop immediately," President Mahama clarified.
The President made this clarification at Amanfrom during an inspection tour of the Tepa–Agoaso Road construction in the Ahafo Region.
The President stated that, the enforcing law had been in existence for a long time and that it was an amendment passed by Parliament to an old Legislative Instrument.
He added that the old one contained the prohibition of hawking and preaching in commercial buses in motion.
He further emphasized that, implementation of the law was to ensure sanity on our roads as well as curbing the evitable road crashes we have recorded in recent times.
“When a car is in motion and someone is preaching or hawking, the driver’s attention will definitely come on what the person will be saying.
This is surely one of the main reasons why drivers lose concentration when driving, and that also contributes to some of the crucial accidents we see on our roads”. His Excellency further explained.
This law forms part of the provisions in the new ROAD Safety L.I 2519 2026 that seeks to ensure there is sanity on roads.
