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Sierra Leone’s government is introducing buses to the country’s busy capital of Freetown, in an effort to provide residents with a public transport system and address the transport crisis, Africanews reported.

Freetown has up to now mainly relied on an informal network of road transport, which consists of mini-buses, shared taxis and motorcycle taxis. Residents have long complained that the current system is chaotic and unreliable, and results in numerous gridlocks during rush hour.

Now, the city has acquired 50 buses under the Sierra Leone Integrated and Resilient Urban Mobility project, a partnership between the country’s Ministry of Transport, the World Bank and the international consultancy group Integrated Transport Planning (ITP).

Currently, 42 buses have been deployed into the city, with the project also introducing formalized business models, ticketing systems, as well as regulatory bodies to improve reliability and efficiency in the new transport system, according to ITP.

Still, Alpha Amadu Bah, president of the drivers and transport workers’ union, noted that Freetown will need more buses to be able to truly serve residents.

Meanwhile, the transport ministry is looking into other options to reduce the transportation crisis, including changes to fares paid by commuters.

Sierra Leone, one of the world’s poorest countries, is still recovering from a devasting civil war (1991–2002), the Ebola crisis (2014-2016), and the Covid pandemic.