Meaning of the alpha-numeric characters of vehicular number plates in Ghana

Meaning of the alpha-numeric characters of vehicular number plates in Ghana

Before a vehicle can be used for either private or commercial purpose in Ghana, it must be registered with the Drivers and Vehicular Licencing Authority (DVLA), a mandated authority responsible for keeping the licencing database of drivers and vehicles.

A registered vehicle is assigned a unique registration number on an aluminium plate which must be affixed at both the front and back of the vehicle. This number is permanent for that specific vehicle as it serves as an identifier tied to the vehicle chassis number and the true owner.

The number on the metal plate is specially designed to allow readability from afar.

One may wonder what those numbers prefixed with letters actually mean. Well, the registration number has three parts;

1. Two-letter alphabets: These are the regional codes (representing the various regions where DVLA registers vehicles)
2. 4-digit numeric codes: the vehicle registration counts unique to every vehicle.
3. Registration year.

Credit: plate-planet.com

The regional codes which are usually represented with two letters imply the various region in Ghana where there is a DVLA office and those vehicles that are registered there have their registration numbers prefixed with the region’s 2-letter code.  DVLA has vehicular registration offices in almost all regions. The following are the regions with their codes;

AS, AE, AW = Ashanti Region *

BA = Brong-Ahafo Region*

CR = Central Region

ER = Eastern Region

GR, GC, GE, GL, GM, GN, GT, GS, GW, GY, GX = Greater Accra Region

NR = Northern Region

UE = Upper East Region*

UW = Upper West Region*

VR = Volta Region

WR = Western Region

The 1-4-digit numbers are the unique numbers that imply the number of vehicles registered. For example, the first vehicle to be registered at Tamale which is in the Northern Region in the year 2012. The registration number will therefore be given as  NR 1 2012