Claim: Foreign Affairs Ministry approves travel for DVLA staff to work overseas.
Source: Media reports
Verdict: True
Researched by Nusrat Essah
On February 25, 2026, media reports suggested that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Julius Neequaye Kotey, had indicated that the Foreign Affairs Ministry had approved for DVLA staff to travel overseas and serve Ghanaians in five countries.
A flyer shared by JoyNews on X which elicited sharp criticism of the announcement read: “The Foreign Affairs Ministry has granted approval for some DVLA staff to travel to USA, Canada, UK, Netherlands, and Germany to register and renew licences of Ghanaian drivers in diaspora – DVLA Boss.”
In the wake of the backlash, the CEO of DVLA wrote a post on his Facebook page describing the news reports as misleading: “People are too quick to share misleading stories…. ah hahaha tomorrow a good response will come,” his post read.
This report will verify what the DVLA boss said and whether the media misled the public with their stories and headlines.
Fact-Check
GhanaFact traced the exact comment by the DVLA CEO, to his speech (archived) at the commissioning of the new DVLA office at Bantama in Kumasi.
In the 46-second video shared by JoyNews on X, he could be heard saying: “Some of you DVLA staff, you are travelling overseas, so we provide services in five countries outside. The US, Canada, Netherlands, UK and Germany, I can see you are smiling. I will add you, don’t worry.
“So that is the service we are going to provide. We have gotten approval from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and this is what we are going to do for our Ghanaians staying abroad. They don’t need to come down to come and renew their one-year license, which has expired. We will be there, and we will be doing it for them. We will provide all licensing issues over there for them without vehicle registration.”
His remarks explicitly referenced DVLA staff travelling overseas to provide services in the listed countries. Hence the media reportage and flyers were NOT Misleading.
DVLA issues statement
On February 26, 2026, the DVLA issued a statement of clarification titled: “DVLA clarifies the misleading media headlines on its intention to provide driver licensing services in selected countries.”
The statement said: “As part of the implementation plan, the DVLA will provide training to Embassy staff to do verification of documents and forward same to DVLA for processing…The operation does not in any way mean that the DVLA would post its domestic staff to work at Embassies in the aforementioned countries as the news headline sought to portray.”
The Authority has since issued another statement, announcing that it is reviewing its approach and exploring alternative options to ensure its services remain accessible to Ghanaians abroad.
Although the DVLA later clarified that it would not post domestic staff to the embassies in the aforementioned countries, the initial remarks by the CEO clearly referenced staff travelling overseas to provide services.
The media reports were consistent with his public remarks and cannot be described as misleading based on the wording of his speech.
Verdict
Therefore, the claim as reported by the media reports was true and not misleading.
