How much does it cost to run a car in Accra?

About ₵1,467 a month for a mid-size saloon driven 250km a week — ₵1,259 of that is fuel at today's pump price of ₵14.53 a litre, the rest is third-party insurance, a servicing allowance and annual fees. That works out at ₵17,601 a year, or ₵1.35 per kilometre. Change the assumptions in the calculator above — mileage and consumption move this number more than anything else.

How much is import duty on a car in Ghana?

Vehicle import duty runs between 5% and 20% of the CIF value, set by engine capacity under the ECOWAS Common External Tariff. On top of that sit VAT at 15%, NHIL at 2.5% and the GETFund levy at 2.5% — all three charged on the same duty-inclusive base since the VAT Act 2025 took effect on 1 January 2026, giving an effective 20% rather than a cascade — plus the ECOWAS levy at 0.5% and the AU levy at 0.2% of CIF, and an examination fee around 1%. We deliberately do not publish the exact engine-capacity thresholds, because they are not available in a form we can cite. ICUMS applies them to your VIN and its assessment is the one that counts.

Can I import a right-hand-drive car into Ghana?

No. Right-hand-drive vehicles are prohibited outright, with no exemption and no duty that clears them. A right-hand-drive car bought abroad will be refused entry at Tema, and the Ghana Standards Authority guidelines taking effect on 1 October 2026 restate the ban for originally right-hand-drive vehicles.

What is the penalty on a car over 10 years old?

Age is counted from the year of manufacture, not first registration, and the penalty is charged on the CIF value on a graduated scale: 5% at 10–12 years, 20% at 12–15, 50% at 15–25, 70% at 25–35, and 100% beyond 35. So a car a year over the line is a mild penalty, and one five years over is a different purchase entirely.

Why is my duty higher than what I paid for the car?

Because duty is not charged on what you paid. ICUMS derives a Home Delivery Value from your VIN using a central valuation database, and that value is the base. Buying cheap abroad, or from a private seller, does not reduce it. The US Department of Commerce has stated that the system tends to greatly overvalue used vehicles relative to typical Kelley Blue Book values — so a gap between your purchase price and your assessment is the normal case, not an error.

How much is the emissions levy on a car?

There is no longer one. The Emissions Levy (Act 1112) charged ₵150 a year on vehicles up to 3,000cc and ₵300 above that, but it was repealed by the Emissions Levy (Repeal) Act 2025 and the President assented on 2 April 2025, with immediate effect. The DVLA requirement to verify payment before issuing a road-use certificate went with it. If a levy line appears on a 2026 bill, question it.

What does a full tank cost in Accra?

A 50-litre tank at ₵14.53 a litre — the cheapest petrol we can currently source, at Goodness Oil — is ₵726.50. That price moves with every NPA pricing window, so it is worth checking the fuel page rather than remembering what you paid last month.

Is it cheaper to drive or take a trotro in Accra?

On these assumptions, driving costs ₵1,467 a month against roughly ₵331 for a trotro commuter making two trips a day, five days a week, at the average fare across the routes we track. Driving is the more expensive option by a wide margin, and the gap is mostly fuel and insurance rather than the trip itself. The comparison is deliberately crude — it prices commuting, not the errands, the school run or the rain — but the direction is not close.

Motoring · Accraas of 13 Aug 2026 · 00:00 GMT

What Does It Cost to Run a Car in Accra?

A mid-size saloon driven 250km a week costs about ₵1,467 a month to keep on the road in Accra — of which ₵1,259 is fuel at today's pump price. Every other cost is roughly fixed; fuel is the one that moves, and it moved on 4 August.

Monthly running cost

₵1,467

250km/week, third-party

Of which fuel

₵1,259

86% of the total

Per kilometre

₵1.35

all-in, at these assumptions

Import duty

5–20%

by engine size, on CIF

What your car costs you

Fuel comes from the live pump price on our fuel page, so this number moves when the NPA window does. Everything else is an assumption you can see and change.

Fuel

Insurance

Distance driven

km/week

Fuel consumption

L/100km

Servicing allowance

₵/1,000km

Annual fixed fees

₵/yr

Monthly cost to run₵1,467

Fuel1083 km at ₵14.53/L₵1,259
Insurancethird-party, ₵530/yr₵44
Servicing and wear₵120 per 1,000 km₵130
Roadworthy and registration₵400/yr₵33

₵17,601 a year · ₵1.35 per kilometre · fuel is 86% of the total and the only line that moves with the NPA window. Pump price from Goodness Oil; a 50-litre fill is ₵726.50.

Assumption	Value	How well we know it
Fuel consumptionCombined-cycle consumption for a mid-size saloon. Reader-editable — a Corolla-class car in Accra traffic sits near this; a pickup or heavy stop-start commuting runs higher.	8 L/100km	estimated
Distance drivenRoughly a 25km round-trip commute five days a week plus weekend running. Reader-editable, and the single input that moves the total most.	250 km/wk	estimated
Third-party insuranceStatutory minimum third-party premium for a private saloon, the last published figure. The National Insurance Commission adjusted motor premiums again with effect from 16 February 2026 and we have not been able to source the new private-saloon figure, so this is the floor rather than today's quote.	₵530	verifiedsource
Comprehensive insuranceComprehensive cover in Ghana is quoted as a percentage of the insured value, typically 5-7%. We use the midpoint; your quote will depend on the car, your claims history and the insurer.	6%	triangulatedsource
Servicing and wearAn allowance for oil, filters, tyres, brakes and the small failures a used car in Accra produces. This is our own figure, not a sourced one: it is the honest shape of a cost that varies more by car and driver than by anything we could publish.	₵120	estimated
Roadworthy and registrationAnnual DVLA roadworthy and associated fees. The DVLA does not publish a current consolidated fee schedule we could cite, so this is an allowance and is deliberately editable rather than presented as the fee.	₵400	estimated
Insured valueOnly used to price comprehensive cover. We publish no used-car price table — see the note on the page — so this is a starting point for the calculator, not a claim about what any car is worth.	₵120,000	estimated

Depreciation is deliberately excluded: it is the largest cost of owning a car and not a cash cost of running one, and we have no defensible Ghanaian resale data to derive it from — the same reason there is no price table on this page.

This is an estimate, not a customs assessment or an insurance quote. The running cost is built from assumptions shown and editable on this page — your consumption, mileage and servicing will differ. Duty is assessed by the Ghana Revenue Authority through ICUMS against your vehicle's VIN, and its valuation — not the price you paid — is what you are charged on. Insurance premiums are set by the insurer under National Insurance Commission rules and are quoted per vehicle and per driver. Import rules change, and a new Ghana Standards Authority regime begins on 1 October 2026. accra.cool does not recommend any vehicle, dealer, importer or insurer. Confirm duty at ICUMS and cover with a licensed insurer before you commit money.

Fuel is the cost that moves

Almost everything about running a car is fixed for a year at a time. Insurance is an annual premium. Roadworthy and registration are annual fees. Servicing tracks distance, not dates. One line moves, and it moves every fortnight: fuel is 86% of the monthly total on the assumptions above, and it reprices whenever the National Petroleum Authority opens a new window — or, increasingly, whenever an OMC takes delivery of a consignment.

That is why this page reads the pump price live rather than storing one. When the petrol floor rose 9.4% on 1 August 2026, every car in Accra got more expensive to run that morning, and no other line on this page changed. A running cost written down in July would have been wrong by August without anything visibly breaking.

The practical consequence for a driver is that the lever worth pulling is distance, not brand. At ₵1.35 per kilometre all-in, a habit of one fewer cross-town trip a week is worth more than any amount of shopping around for a cheaper pump — though the cheapest pump is on our fuel page too, and it is currently Goodness Oil at ₵14.53 a litre.

— accra.cool desk

What's left after a car

Take-home on ₵8,000 gross via /paye₵6,072
Running a car this page−₵1,467
Makola food basket via /prices−₵480
Left for rent and everything else₵4,125

₵8,000 gross is an illustration, not a claim about what anyone earns. Every line derives from another page on this site and moves when that page does.

The import duty stack

Every charge that lands on an imported vehicle, and what each is charged on. The assessment that counts is the GRA's: run your VIN through ICUMS.

Charge	Rate	Charged on
Import dutySet under the ECOWAS Common External Tariff. The rate rises with engine size, but the exact cc thresholds are not published in a form we can cite — ICUMS applies them to your VIN.	5–20% by engine capacity	CIF
VATFrom 1 January 2026 under the VAT Act 2025 (Act 1151), VAT, NHIL and the GETFund levy are all charged on the same base rather than stacking on one another.	15%	duty-inclusive value
NHILRecoupled to the VAT base by Act 1151. With VAT and GETFund this gives an effective 20% rather than a cascade.	2.5%	duty-inclusive value
GETFund levyRecoupled to the VAT base by Act 1151, and now creditable as input tax for registered businesses.	2.5%	duty-inclusive value
ECOWAS levyCommunity levy applied across the bloc.	0.5%	CIF
African Union levyAU import levy.	0.2%	CIF
Examination / processing feeCharged on the CIF value at clearance.	1%	CIF

No longer charged: COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy. Abolished. The 1% levy was removed with effect from 1 January 2026 and should not appear on any 2026 assessment — the same repeal /paye already carries.

Overage penalty by age

Age from manufacture	Penalty on CIF
10–12 years	5%
12–15 years	20%
15–25 years	50%
25–35 years	70%
Over 35 years	100%

The valuation is not your purchase price

The most expensive misunderstanding in importing a car into Ghana is the belief that duty is charged on what you paid. It is not. ICUMS derives a Home Delivery Value from the vehicle identification number, against a central valuation database, and that figure is the base every percentage on this page is applied to. Your receipt does not enter the calculation.

This is not a small technicality. The United States Department of Commerce has stated that the Ghanaian system tends to greatly overvalue used vehicles, above typical Kelley Blue Book values — which means a gap between what you paid and what you are assessed on is the ordinary outcome, not a mistake to appeal. Buying from a private seller, buying a damaged car cheaply, or negotiating hard abroad changes your outlay and not your duty.

The one thing that does move the assessment is the car itself: engine capacity sets the duty band, and age sets the overage penalty. Both are properties of the vehicle you choose, decided before you pay for anything. Which is the argument for running the VIN through ICUMS before the money leaves your account rather than after the car reaches Tema.

— accra.cool desk

What the rules actually forbid

These are the ones that leave a car sitting at Tema. None of them is a cost you can pay your way out of.

Right-hand-drive vehicles are prohibited
There is no exemption and no duty you can pay to clear one. A right-hand-drive car bought abroad is refused entry at Tema, and the Ghana Standards Authority guidelines restate the prohibition for originally right-hand-drive vehicles.
Vehicles over 10 years old carry a penalty, and the scale is steep
Age runs from the year of manufacture, not first registration. The penalty is charged on CIF and rises sharply: 5% at 10–12 years, 20% at 12–15, 50% at 15–25, 70% at 25–35, and 100% beyond 35.
From 1 October 2026: no Certificate of Conformance, no entryfrom 1 October
The Ghana Standards Authority begins enforcing vehicle homologation. Importers, distributors and dealers must register with the GSA, and every used vehicle needs a Certificate of Conformance from an approved inspection body, issued after pre-shipment inspection in the exporting country. A car shipped without one will not clear.
Salvage and rebuilt vehicles are prohibitedfrom 1 October
Water-damaged, fire-damaged and structurally damaged vehicles are barred, as are vehicles assembled from parts rather than imported as complete units. Minor cosmetic damage is acceptable if the car remains roadworthy.
The speedometer must read in kilometres per hourfrom 1 October
A vehicle whose speedometer is not calibrated to km/h is non-compliant under the GSA guidelines — a detail that catches cars imported from the United States.

What we publish, and what we got wrong

There is a used-car price index on this site now, at /car/prices — median asking price by make, model and year, with the middle half of listings shown beside every median and the number of listings behind it. What follows is why it took a second attempt, because the first answer was wrong in a way worth recording.

We originally published no prices at all. The reason was real: two 2026 guides contradicted each other irreconcilably. Guazi put a 2016-2021 Toyota Corolla at ₵60,000-135,000; YEN put a 2009-2013 Corolla at ₵160,000-230,000 — the older car at more than twice the newer one, in the same year, in the same market. At least one of them is badly wrong, and we could not tell which.

The error was in what we concluded from that. Those two sources are single-author estimates, and we generalised from "these sources are unusable" to "this cannot be built". It can. A median over dozens of live listings, published only where the sample supports it and shown with its spread, is a different kind of claim from one writer's guess — and it is the method already used for rent.

What has not changed is the sourcing bar. Ghana has no transaction-price register for used cars, so the index reports asking prices and says so on every surface. A model and year appears only where at least eight listings back it; groups below that are withheld and counted. And we still do not republish the guide figures, because a number nobody can source does not become sourceable by being quoted.

— accra.cool desk

Common questions

How much does it cost to run a car in Accra?
About ₵1,467 a month for a mid-size saloon driven 250km a week — ₵1,259 of that is fuel at today's pump price of ₵14.53 a litre, the rest is third-party insurance, a servicing allowance and annual fees. That works out at ₵17,601 a year, or ₵1.35 per kilometre. Change the assumptions in the calculator above — mileage and consumption move this number more than anything else.
How much is import duty on a car in Ghana?
Vehicle import duty runs between 5% and 20% of the CIF value, set by engine capacity under the ECOWAS Common External Tariff. On top of that sit VAT at 15%, NHIL at 2.5% and the GETFund levy at 2.5% — all three charged on the same duty-inclusive base since the VAT Act 2025 took effect on 1 January 2026, giving an effective 20% rather than a cascade — plus the ECOWAS levy at 0.5% and the AU levy at 0.2% of CIF, and an examination fee around 1%. We deliberately do not publish the exact engine-capacity thresholds, because they are not available in a form we can cite. ICUMS applies them to your VIN and its assessment is the one that counts.
Can I import a right-hand-drive car into Ghana?
No. Right-hand-drive vehicles are prohibited outright, with no exemption and no duty that clears them. A right-hand-drive car bought abroad will be refused entry at Tema, and the Ghana Standards Authority guidelines taking effect on 1 October 2026 restate the ban for originally right-hand-drive vehicles.
What is the penalty on a car over 10 years old?
Age is counted from the year of manufacture, not first registration, and the penalty is charged on the CIF value on a graduated scale: 5% at 10–12 years, 20% at 12–15, 50% at 15–25, 70% at 25–35, and 100% beyond 35. So a car a year over the line is a mild penalty, and one five years over is a different purchase entirely.
Why is my duty higher than what I paid for the car?
Because duty is not charged on what you paid. ICUMS derives a Home Delivery Value from your VIN using a central valuation database, and that value is the base. Buying cheap abroad, or from a private seller, does not reduce it. The US Department of Commerce has stated that the system tends to greatly overvalue used vehicles relative to typical Kelley Blue Book values — so a gap between your purchase price and your assessment is the normal case, not an error.
How much is the emissions levy on a car?
There is no longer one. The Emissions Levy (Act 1112) charged ₵150 a year on vehicles up to 3,000cc and ₵300 above that, but it was repealed by the Emissions Levy (Repeal) Act 2025 and the President assented on 2 April 2025, with immediate effect. The DVLA requirement to verify payment before issuing a road-use certificate went with it. If a levy line appears on a 2026 bill, question it.
What does a full tank cost in Accra?
A 50-litre tank at ₵14.53 a litre — the cheapest petrol we can currently source, at Goodness Oil — is ₵726.50. That price moves with every NPA pricing window, so it is worth checking the fuel page rather than remembering what you paid last month.
Is it cheaper to drive or take a trotro in Accra?
On these assumptions, driving costs ₵1,467 a month against roughly ₵331 for a trotro commuter making two trips a day, five days a week, at the average fare across the routes we track. Driving is the more expensive option by a wide margin, and the gap is mostly fuel and insurance rather than the trip itself. The comparison is deliberately crude — it prices commuting, not the errands, the school run or the rain — but the direction is not close.

Have a question we should answer? Email hello@accra.cool.

What Does It Cost to Run a Car in Accra?

What your car costs you

Fuel is the cost that moves

What's left after a car

The import duty stack

Overage penalty by age

The valuation is not your purchase price

What the rules actually forbid

What we publish, and what we got wrong

Common questions

Read next

What an EV really costs

What used cars list for

Today's pump prices

What you actually earn

Fares on the routes we track