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Managing Director of the State Transport Company (STC), Nana Akomea, has pleaded with the public not to politicise the recent gains by the company to make war between the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

“I will plead that the transformation of this venerable state institution is not turned into an NPP-NDC rivalry,” he said in a post.

Admitting the gains made by previous administrations, Mr Akomea said: “Hon Nuamah Donkor and his team played a great role in bringing STC back.”

He continued: “They oversaw the acquisition of 50 state-of-the-art buses/coaches in October last year. Indeed, one newly revamped station is proposed to be named for Nuamah Donkor.”

He outlined that the current management is rolling out plans that will ensure that STC is modernised and revamped into a profit-making entity.

“The new management is building on this to totally transform the operations of STC and return it to profitability. Firm arrangements have been concluded to triple STC's fleet strength by December 2017. The E-payments platform should be up and ready by end of September with the support of 2 banks; Stanbic and Unibank. The ‘cabin crew’ service which will transform passenger service in Ghana is set to roll. Recruitment of a 100 young ladies was concluded last week. Their training is ongoing. Trial runs will start next week Wednesday. The service will be fully launched first week of September 2017,” he said.

According to him, “drivers are being retrained and rebranded. The inconsistent WiFi service on the coaches is being revamped. The difficult Accra-Kumasi route due to presence of strong rivals is being tackled head-on. With the new loading point established at Nkrumah Circle last week, STC now runs ten fully loaded services every day from Nkrumah Circle to Kumasi”.

He assured that the welfare of staff will be a priority with better working conditions.

“STC, starting September, will be current with workers SSNIT payments and conclude arrangements to retire the 2 years arrears owed SSNIT. Similar arrangements have been put in place for staff Provident payments. Salary reviews are back on the table. The company is ready to start repayments this month to government for the loan for the 50 Scania buses,” he indicated.

However, he explained that there are some hurdles which need to be addressed.

“Our terminals are in deplorable states. Funds have been set aside to restore basic decency and comfort for passengers in our terminals. Long term, we are engaged in negotiations with private investors for complete revamping of our terminal into modern edifices. The company is still saddled with huge debts spanning the last 10 years. Punctuality on scheduled services still slips. Some staff are still in the old mentality that they are doing the passenger a favour.
“But with honest and prudent management, enhanced passenger care and service, and goodwill of all Ghanaians, this venerable state company will become profitable and regain the status as the preferred intercity transport service in this country,” he added.