Driving in Ghana on a UK Licence — IDP Recommended, and You Switch to the Right

Ghana is one of West Africa’s more approachable self-drive destinations for British visitors, but “approachable” still means a real shift in driving habits — starting with which side of the road you sit on.

Can a British licence holder drive in Ghana?

Yes, for a short tourist trip. Your UK licence is accepted, and an International Driving Permit is recommended to carry with it — not least because Ghana has frequent police checkpoints, and an officer who can read your permit at a glance makes for a faster stop. Keep the IDP, your UK licence and passport together. Sort the permit in Britain before departure; you cannot reliably obtain one once you have landed.

The side switch is the first hazard

The UK drives on the left; Ghana drives on the right. That reversal is the single most likely thing to catch a British driver out, and Ghanaian roads do not give you much margin to relearn gently. Accra traffic is dense and assertive, lane discipline is loose, and you will share the carriageway with tro-tros (shared minibuses) stopping without warning, motorbikes filtering on both sides, and pedestrians and traders close to the edge. Take your first drive somewhere quiet, be deliberate at every junction and roundabout, and expect to actively think about the side for the first day.

Speeds, fuel and what actually slows you down

The posted limits are 50 km/h in towns, 80 on rural roads and 100 on the motorway, but the binding constraint is usually traffic, speed humps and surface quality rather than the sign. Away from the main corridors, roads can be rough, and unlit vehicles and animals make night driving genuinely risky — plan to be off the road by dusk. Petrol runs around $1.05 a litre; fill up before long rural stretches, as stations thin out. The drink-drive limit is 0.08, but with roads this busy the sensible line is none. The emergency number is 112.

Read the full Ghana driving guide, confirm your paperwork with the Driving Permit Checker, and estimate distances and fuel with the Fuel Cost Calculator.