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A Ghanaian public health researcher, Mohammed Gazali Salifu, has called for affordable and practical safety regulations for commercial motorcycle operators, warning that enforcement alone may not be enough to improve compliance and reduce road crashes.
Salifu, a PhD candidate in International Health (Health Systems) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, United States, is investigating the implementation of commercial motorcycle regulations in Ghana, with findings that could inform road safety policies in Nigeria and other African countries.
His research examines how governments can improve the safety of commercial motorcycle transportation while recognising the economic realities of riders who depend on the business for their livelihoods.
As part of the study, conducted under the Mini-BIGRS Field Implementation Research Study, Salifu surveyed more than 450 commercial motorcycle riders in urban Ghana and interviewed key stakeholders, including rider union leaders, law enforcement officials and regulators. The mixed-methods research investigates the acceptability, appropriateness and feasibility of the country’s motorcycle regulations.
One of the emerging findings revealed a significant difference between reported helmet use and the correct wearing of the safety equipment. Although nearly 89 per cent of the riders said they wore helmets on their most recent trips, direct observation showed that only about 15 per cent had their helmets properly fastened when surveyed.
The finding highlights a challenge for road safety authorities, suggesting that reported compliance may not always translate into the correct use of protective equipment. Salifu’s research therefore examines how safety education, enforcement and practical interventions can improve riders’ adherence to regulations.
The study also found that about 68 per cent of respondents reported having valid driving licences, while approximately 63 per cent said they had motorcycle insurance. Formal safety training was considerably less common, raising questions about how operators acquire the knowledge and skills needed to reduce road traffic injuries.
Police interactions were widespread, with approximately 88 per cent of riders reporting that they had been stopped by law enforcement officers in the preceding 12 months. Documentation and licensing issues were the most common reasons for the encounters, while only about 57 per cent of respondents said they were aware of the regulations being examined.
Beyond enforcement, the research highlights financial challenges that could affect compliance. More than half of the riders reported having no personal savings they could rely on, while relatively few had another source of income. The findings suggest that the costs of licences, insurance and safety training could influence operators’ ability to meet regulatory requirements.
Despite these challenges, riders generally viewed the proposed safety measures positively. The research suggests that the central issue may not simply be whether operators support safer transportation, but whether regulatory systems make compliance affordable, accessible and achievable. It consequently examines ways to combine enforcement with education, training and practical or financial support.
Salifu’s work is supported by his broader research interests in implementation science, road safety and injury prevention, health systems strengthening and policy evaluation. He is a graduate research assistant with the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety at Johns Hopkins, where he provides technical support across 10 partner cities in India, Bangladesh and Africa, contributing to technical reports, policy briefs and research publications.
Before beginning his doctoral studies in 2023, Salifu earned a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and Disease Control from the University of Ghana in 2020 and a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences from the University for Development Studies in 2018. He also worked as a senior health policy monitoring and evaluation analyst at Ghana’s Ministry of Health from 2018 to 2023, where he founded and coordinated a monitoring and evaluation network involving officers from 26 ministry agencies and partners.
His academic work spans several public health concerns. In a 2024 paper published in Frontiers in Public Health, Salifu and his co-authors examined anaemia among women of reproductive age in selected sub-Saharan African countries using Demographic and Health Surveys data from 2008 to 2018. His other peer-reviewed publications have addressed physical activity among adolescents across 23 African countries, COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among African healthcare workers, malaria prevalence among children in Ghana and traumatic brain injuries among children in sub-Saharan Africa.
The researcher is also developing manuscripts examining the acceptability, appropriateness and feasibility of Ghana’s commercial motorcycle regulations, as well as a scoping review of commercial motorcycle transport interventions in low- and middle-income countries. His work on road safety includes research evaluating seatbelt enforcement strategies across cities participating in the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety, which he presented at the 2025 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting.
Although the current motorcycle study is based in Ghana, Salifu’s findings raise questions for Nigeria and other African countries where commercial motorcycles provide transportation and employment but present road safety challenges. His research seeks to generate African evidence that can help governments develop regulations that are effective in practice, responsive to riders’ circumstances and capable of improving safety without overlooking the livelihoods that depend on the sector.
