Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

and neighboring countries, tro tro are privately owned minibus

share taxi Share may refer to: * Share, to make joint use of a resource (such as food, money, or space); see Sharing * Share (finance), a stock or other financial security (such as a mutual fund) * Share, Kwara, a town and LGA in Kwara State, Nigeria Share m ...

s that travel fixed routes leaving when filled to capacity. While there are ''tro tro'' stations, these

vehicles for hire A vehicle for hire is a vehicle providing private transport or shared transport for a fee, in which passengers are generally free to choose their points or approximate points of origin and destination, unlike public transport, and which they ...

can also be boarded anywhere along the route. Operated by a driver and a conductor (who collects money, shouts out the destination, and can also be called a "mate"), many are decorated with slogans and religious sayings. Fewer tro tros operate on Sundays.Ghana: The Bradt Travel Guide (page 69)
Philip Briggs. Bradt Travel Guides, 2007. 4th ed. 416 pages. 1841622052, 9781841622057 (Google Books) The term is believed to derive from the Ga word ''tro'', "threepence", because the conductors usually asked for "three three pence", which was the standard bus fare in the 1940s, when Ghana still uses the

British West African pound The pound was the currency of British West Africa, a group of British colonies, protectorates and mandate territories. It was equal to one pound sterling and was similarly subdivided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence. History In the 19th ...

and later the

Ghanaian pound The pound was the currency of Ghana between 1958 and 1965. It was subdivided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence. Until 1958, Ghana used the British West African pound, after which it issued its own currency. In 1965, Ghana introduced the first ' ...

. Alternatively, its origin is not "three times three pence" but rather "threepence hruhpnce, troeach": doubling a coin's name in the vernacular means "that coin for each person (or item)". Three pence was the price per passenger in the early 1960s, when pounds/shillings/pence were still in use, including threepence coins, before decimalization of the currency into cedi and pesewa in 1965.

Ghana

Used by 70% of Ghanaian commuters, ''tro tro'' is the most popular form of transport for work and shopping in the country as of 2010. Large buses also provide public transport in

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

, Ghana, as of 2008 and are patronized by people of different social classes. Trootro-mate1

Regulation

In Ghana, ''tro tro'' are licensed by the government, but the industry is self-regulated.Report from the Field: The Tro-Tro – An Essential Mode of Transport in Accra, Ghana
by Susan Blaustein. blogs.ei.columbia.edu, 9.29.2010 There was no independent transport authority as of 2008 in the capital, Accra. In the absence of a regulatory environment, groups called syndicates oversee minibus share taxis like ''tro tro'' in Africa. These may collect dues, set routes, manage terminals, and fix fares. In Accra as of 2008, such syndicates include GPRTU and PROTOA. Despite the regulatory challenges, the service would lend itself to some regulation during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana The COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first two cases in Ghana were confirmed on 12 March 2020, when two infected ...

. This allowed it to record significant levels (98%) of compliance to guidelines on physical distancing, although guidelines on individual use of face masks were more difficult to enforce. 'trotro' in Ghana

References

External links

{{Commons category, Trotro (Ghana) Share taxis Road transport in Ghana

Ghana

Regulation

See also

Further reading

References

External links