If you are planning to register a vehicle in Ghana in the coming months, or if your current plate is due for renewal, there are significant changes coming that every driver needs to understand.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority is in the final stages of rolling out a completely redesigned number plate system — one that scraps the decades-old practice of displaying the year of registration and replaces it with a system built around your region and zone.
What is changing?
Under the new system, your plate will display the name of the region where the vehicle is registered at the top, followed by a unique four-digit number and a zonal code. A car registered in Greater Accra, for example, in the Adenta zone, would carry the code AD after its four-digit identifier.
The plates will also be embedded with RFID chips — a major technological leap that will enable automated scanning for law enforcement, real-time vehicle tracking, automated toll collection, and fraud prevention through a central database that links every plate to its registered owner.
The reflective design will also improve nighttime visibility for road safety purposes.
Why was it delayed?
The system was originally scheduled to launch in January 2026, but the DVLA was forced to roll out the standard “26” suffix plates at the start of the year after Parliament went on recess without passing the amendments required to the Road Traffic Regulations (L.I. 2180). Being a law-guided institution, the DVLA said it could not implement the new regime without the legal framework in place. Those amendments have since been addressed, and the rollout is now imminent.
What about DV and temporary plates?
The misuse of DV (Defective Vehicle) plates has been a persistent problem, with private owners using them indefinitely to keep unregistered vehicles on the road. New DV plates and redesigned TMP (temporary) plates will be introduced alongside the main system, along with a fresh sticker system for vehicles not yet cleared for road use.
When the full rollout date is confirmed, GhNewsOnline will publish it immediately. Watch this space.
