The privately owned minibuses that are Accra’s real transport system. They carry far more people than every bus, taxi and ride-hailing app combined.
A trotro runs a fixed route between lorry stations, leaving when it is full rather than at a time. It has a driver and a mate — the conductor who hangs out of the door, calls the destination, collects fares and gives change.
There is no timetable, no route map, no published fare list and no stops. You wave one down, get in, pass your money forward, and say “bus stop!” when you want to get off.
It is by a wide margin the cheapest way to move around Accra, and by a wide margin the slowest.
The name is said to come from tro, an old colonial-era coin — the fare, three pence, “tro tro”.