The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) is set to take full control of the production and embossment of vehicle number plates in Ghana, in a major move aimed at curbing the growing influx of fake and substandard number plates into the system.
Under the new arrangement, the DVLA will manufacture and emboss its own number plates and no longer rely on third parties or imports for the supply of the plates.
The move forms part of a broader transformation of the Authority to strengthen the security, quality and integrity of vehicle registration in the country.
To facilitate the initiative, the Authority has commenced construction of a vehicle number plate manufacturing centre at its Greater Accra Regional office.
The centre, which is expected to be completed within three months, will produce new number plates embedded with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to enhance security and traceability.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the DVLA, Julius Neequaye Kortey, on Friday, August 28, 2026, cut the sod to mark the official start of construction works on the facility.
Addressing the gathering, the CEO said the establishment of the centre represented a significant step towards repositioning the DVLA as a modern, self-reliant and secure institution capable of providing essential services within the road transport sector.
He said the facility, when completed and operational, would ensure a reliable supply of high-quality number plates while helping to eliminate fake ones from the system.
“The sod that has been cut today demonstrates the government’s commitment to reposition the DVLA as a key institution in the road transport sector,” he said.
Mr Kortey said the Authority’s decision to take over the production and embossment of number plates was intended to end the practice where virtually anyone could gain access to the means of producing or embossing vehicle registration plates.
“What we are saying is that the era where anyone gets the means to manufacture or emboss number plates is a thing of the past. DVLA will regulate embossers to do things right,” he said.
No Third Parties
Mr Kortey explained that once production begins, the DVLA would manufacture the plates and distribute them to its regional offices for embossment.
“When we manufacture our plates, we will distribute them to our offices for embossment,” he said.
According to him, the arrangement would bring the service closer to vehicle owners while giving the Authority greater control over the production and distribution of number plates.
He said each region would be provided with an embossment machine, with the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions receiving five and three machines respectively because of the high volume of vehicles registered in those regions.
The CEO stressed that the new policy was not intended to deprive private embossers of their livelihoods but to ensure that their operations were properly regulated.
He said qualified embossers would be distributed across the country and required to comply with the Authority’s standards to ensure that only genuine and quality number plates were produced.
