The CEO of Ghana’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Julius Neequaye Kotey, said that about 5% of vehicle number plates in Ghana are fake. The figure derives from DVLA data on vehicles currently operational in the country.
Mr. Kotey made the statement during an interview on TV3 Ghana on how fake number plates are acquired by fraudsters who use various illegal methods to produce and obtain fake number plates.
The methods include copying number plates from vehicles damaged beyond repair, using lax procedures at some police stations and
Photocopying customs documents to register other vehicles that didn’t pay duty.
The “fake” vehicle number plates then enter circulation and are used on vehicles that are not legitimately registered or properly documented.
Proposed solutions to curb the problem, is for the DVLA to introduce new number plates embedded with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips.
This will help authenticate number plates against a central database, enable detection of cloned or fake plates via sensors on highways, and
support integration with upcoming toll systems.
Mr. Kotey described number plates as security documents that should be tightly controlled and stamped only by authorised producers.
Ghana’s vehicle registration system currently issues plates in formats that identify registration region and vehicle type. The DVLA manages this process and has authority over licensing and regulation.
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