Intercity STC to name buses after national heroes

The management of Intercity STC has initiated moves to name all its buses after national heroes including past presidents and traditional leaders.

The State Transport Company has already re-named the first two buses provided by Focus Four Limited, one of two private transport companies it is currently partnering to revamp its operations. The buses have been named after Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and former President Rawlings. The company is planning to replicate this with about 140 more buses it is expecting in the coming months.

In an exclusive interview with JOY NEWS, the Managing Director, Samuel Nuamah Donkor emphasized, it is part of initiatives to revamp the company’s operations.

“The next bus is going to go to President Kufuor and the next one, to J.E.A Mills.  We will have the rest after the current President, the wives of past and sitting president and also the various regions and traditional authorities.

“For example buses going to Tamale would have names of traditional heroes in the north like Naa-Gbewa and the Gonja Chiefs. We would want to have a bus system which would give some kind of credence to our heroes in the areas we operate.

“So buses in Cape-Coast should for instance have the heroes from the Central Region like Kwegyir Aggrey. We should be able to have some from the Eastern Region, Volta Region, Northern Region – all parts of the country and including even our former Managing Directors who have contributed and of course some drivers and workers who have distinguished themselves in service to the company” he said.

“At the moment, if there is a problem with the bus, we say for instance Bus number GS 4243F but as soon as we take off all our buses in spite of their number plates would be identified by their names. So we would say Osagyefo is approaching Accra from Aflao and JJ Rawlings is approaching Accra from Abidjan,” he noted.

According to him, an independent implementation team is to be constituted to ensure the exercise is done without any political or cultural biases.

“We would put together a search party which would be outside the management and Board of Directors – made up of people from different groups to look at the issues in a very unbiased manner and come up with some proposals. We would look at people from the academia and people from the business community among others so that they would be able to give us a report which would reflect our aspirations. They would have to go to the traditional authorities for example and seek their opinion as to who actually deserves to have his or her name on a bus,” he concluded.