Unauthorised billboards a threat to road safety – MP tells AMA

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has been asked to move quickly against unauthorised billboards and signboards lining the capital’s major roads, with Parliament warning that they are putting motorists at risk.

Chairperson of Parliament’s Committee on Local Government and Decentralisation, Queenstar Pokuah Sawyerr, said many of the structures block drivers’ view, making them a danger to road safety.

She said this when officials of the AMA, led by the Chief Executive, Michael Kpakpo Allotey, appeared before the committee on Tuesday, October 6.

The officials were there to respond to financial irregularities flagged in the Auditor-General’s 2025 reports on the assembly. The billboard issue came up when members asked what the AMA was doing to clear unauthorised structures from the city and restore its road medians.

Mrs Sawyerr, who is also the MP for Agona East, urged the assembly to first focus on billboards and signboards mounted on the medians, noting that motorists had complained of struggling to see clearly while driving through parts of Accra.

“I think your biggest problem is those who put unauthorised billboards and signboards along our roads because when you are driving these structures block your view from seeing next car ahead of you or approaching you,” she said.

She also asked the assembly not to focus mainly on petty traders selling on tables along the medians, but rather on containers and other permanent unauthorised structures in the streets.

Mrs Sawyerr said the traders on tables were the least of the AMA’s problems, describing them as poor people being thrown out for no good reason.

“If there are no containers and there are no structures, the person will not gather the courage to put a tabletop there and so the most important thing for me that I would advise is that a lot of the signboards and billboards and things that blocks the view of those driving especially should be dealt with,” she said.

Responding, Mr Allotey said the assembly had set up a team to tackle the problem and had already started removing illegal billboards and signboards from the medians.

“We have already begun removing some unauthorised billboards and signboards within road median and we do not need to give notice to the owners since they do not have permission,” he said.

He added that even in the past, when advance notices were issued, owners found ways to stop the assembly from taking action.

“One thing I have noticed is that anytime you want to do any work within the city and you write to give notification, the date that you give to do work becomes difficult because they will mobilise people there to prevent you,” he said.

On traders, Mr Allotey said the assembly was taking a gentler approach than simply chasing hawkers away. Those on the medians are being relocated to designated selling areas marked off with red lines.

He described this as the first phase of the effort to restore greenery along the city’s major roads.