Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Takoradi
First time visitors to the Western countries such as America, Europe and other developed economies who cannot make it to their destinations by themselves only have to give addresses to the taxi drivers or shuttle service providers and they are safe.
The taxi drivers in those countries would drive their customers to the correct addresses and ensure that the address given to them is right even before they bring the visitors’ luggage out of the vehicle.
They would even offer visitors their mobile phones to call their hosts to redirect the drivers when they cannot not locate an address.
The story is however different here in Ghana, especially the Shama Ahanta East Metropolis. When one picks a taxi, the passenger has to be directing the driver to his or her destination. Some of the drivers might know the address very well but would pretend not to know and take the passenger on a useless merry go round just to exact exorbitant fares from unsuspecting passengers.
Many taxi drivers are familiar with some areas like the Airport Ridge, Anaji, Sekondi, STC, Beach Road and others in the metropolis, but they cannot send passengers to the specific addresses without the help of the passenger.
In some cases, the drivers would stop and tell the passengers that they would not go further because the road is either not in good shape or they have to renegotiate the fare.
All these come about as a result of lack of proper numbering of houses of residence and corporate buildings in the metropolis.
The fear is that the Twin City of Sekondi/Takoradi, which is one of the host cities for the Ghana 2008, where more than 60,000 visitors are expected to cheer their respective countries, would take a very negative impression of the twin city away if taxi drivers behave the way they treat their passengers. This is because most of the foreigners may have difficulty locating their places of residence before and after matches.
What makes the problem quite serious is that hotel accommodation in the metropolis is inadequate which means that most of the fans will have to find alternative places or hostels in the metropolis.
Another problem is that since most of the visitors booked their hotels by phone or on the Internet with their credit cards, to find their way to the facilities and check in would pose problems.
The only popular place in the city which can be classified as a proper meeting point is the InterCity/STC Coaches Limited yard where upon arrival, the visitors could pick taxis to wherever they would want to lodge within the metropolis, and that is where the problem with taxi drivers arises. When this reporter interacted with some taxi drivers at the InterCity-STC yard most of them gave conflicting responses.
If they cannot give simple answers or do not know various hotels and important tourist sites within the metropolis, what would be the fate of those who are visiting the town for the first time to witness the big game? Things might not be so bad for the Ivorians since the region shares borders with them, but those from other countries would not be so lucky.
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer for Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly, Mr John Laste, said the assembly had received GH¢200,000 for work on the first phase of various projects in the metropolis.
“Under the first phase of the project we would be doing street naming and directional signs as well as printing of maps to guide the teeming supporters from the four nations to enable them to move freely to any part of the region,” he said.
He said there were moves to ensure that visitors to the metropolis for the big tournament would not be stranded because they could not make their way back to their residences.
“We are not saying that with the street naming coupled with the directions, people would not be be missing the way to their places of residence; at least it will make things easier for them,” he said.
He said the assembly had selected more than 500 names of prominent members of society who would be stationed at vantage points with maps of the city to facilitate the movement of the visitors.
The PRO said some of the areas that would be covered would include the junction from Sekondi College through Essipun and Sekondi to the boundaries of the adjoining districts.
He said work on the project had reached an advanced stage, and expressed the hope that it would be completed far ahead of the commencement of the tournament to enable residents and commercial drivers, especially taxi drivers, to get used to them before the visitors started trooping in.
These measures not withstanding, one might expect the various transport unions and the Ghana Tourist Board to collaborate and organise orientation workshops for the taxi drivers in particular and other commercial drivers generally to help reduce any embarrassment the conduct of drivers could bring to the nation.
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