Nana Fredua Ofori-Atta, the President of the Customs Brokers Association of Ghana (CUGAB), has called on the management of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) to collaborate with relevant stakeholders to reduce clearance challenges.
Mr Ofori-Atta said as the landlord, the GPHA must collaborate with the relevant agencies to reduce the challenges that they encounter, especially with transit, noting that issues with transit trade affect Ghana’s international trade.
Speaking at a media forum powered by the GPHA, he said customs house brokers and freight forwarders have issues, especially bothering on transit trade, as according to him, “When it rains, you have to find somewhere to hide; there is no reception centre, things like that which will generally help you to do your work.”
According to him, when such challenges were not tackled, they become more pronounced when operating in the night, explaining that if they get tired in the night while working, there is no place for them to relax.
“You will be on your feet the whole time you are there; they must pay particular attention to infrastructure, security, and major roads within the port enclave,” he said.
While commending the rolling out of the 24-hour operations, Mr Ofori-Atta emphasised that without a convenient environment, Ghana could lose its transit trade to neighbouring ports such as Togo which was doing everything possible to draw the traffic to their side.
He stressed that delaying in solving the issues would cause Ghana to suffer, reminding the government, GPHA and other stakeholders that when importers decide on where to go, it becomes difficult to change over and get them back.
The CUBAG President expressed joy at the government’s allocation of some monies in the budget for such port activities, stating that “I am happy that the government is pointing us in a certain direction in the budget that some amounts have been allocated to it, even though it is not sufficient, but if it is applied to critical areas, we can see so much improvement.”
Commenting on the 24-hour port service, he said the concept was laudable and stakeholders agree to it, as it reduces the dwell time at the ports and significantly cuts down demurrage, as they do not have to defer work to the next day because the terminals and shipping lines must close.
He said even though some shipping lines and ministries, departments and agencies were yet to fully join the policy implementation, he believes that as the operations continued, they would come on board.