A Board member of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Mr. Francis Yao Agbozo, has appealed to Ghanaians to verify the status of driving schools before enrollment to avoid being swindled.

He said there were many mushroom driving schools operating in the country without certification and announced that from September 01, driving license applicants who do not go through three months training from a recognised driving school would not be issued with driving licenses.

Mr Agbozo said this at a day’s training workshop for operators of driving schools in the Western Region in Takoradi on Monday.

Mr. Agbozo, who is also the General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Driving Schools (GNADS), appealed to prospective drivers to enroll at recognized driving schools and said the Authority would soon publish the names of all recognised driving schools.

He appealed to operators of driving schools to upgrade their facilities and recruit qualified personnel in order to meet the requirements for registration and certification.

He said the Road Traffic Regulation L.I 2180, had made it mandatory for all applicants of driving licences to be trained by the GNADS before undertaking a computer based theory examination with the DVLA for issuance of driving licence.

The President of GNADS, Reverend Erasmus Amankwa Addo, said with the assistance of Fleet Technology, an Information Communication Technology firm, the Association had developed a web-based platform for monitoring the training schedule of all driving schools in the country to ensure effective training of applicants.

He said the Association had developed a course structure and checklist for training applicants.

Mr Addo said the Association believed in holistic training of prospective drivers and would therefore not compromise on quality training.

He warned that it would not hesitate to crack the whip on driving schools that would not comply by the training manual and engaged in fraudulent activities, adding “it is time we place value on the driving profession so as to groom quality drivers to save precious lives”.