Dennis Amfo-Sefah
THE CHAMBER of Freight and Trade has described Government’s introduction of UNIPASS as a masterstroke that aims at eliminating the use of old-fashioned paperwork at the port.
According to Dennis Amfo-Sefah, president of the chamber, it was government’s means to bring in a single vendor to handle the country’s customs revenue at the ports.
Mr Amfo-Sefah’s endorsement of UNIPASS negated the impressions that had been created that all freight forwarders and other workers at the ports were not in support of the government’s move.
Mr Amfo-Sefah therefore called for a stop to the erroneous impressions being created in the public domain by aggrieved parties that were denigrating the 10-year contract.
“Government is simply rolling out a single window platform by making UNIPASS take over the duplicitous services being provided by CTN-Ghana, West Blue and the Ghana Community Network (GC-Net). All the government is doing is instituting a sole service provider for trade facilitation at the ports,” Mr. Amfo-Sefah said.
He added that “gone were the days when we had ASCODA which came with a lot of paper trade and export documentations.”
He continued that “the current generation of the electronic data interchange system, which we are currently running, is a word based platform which has come a long way to help trade facilitation.
“Over the years, government has tried to introduce new technologies; that is IT, into the system. That is why we currently have three vendors providing almost the same service to the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), GC-Net, West Blue and CTN.”
UNIPASS, which is partnered by Ghana Link Network Services locally, was in March 2018 awarded US$40 million 10-year single window contract to provide paperless services at the port.
However, the contract has since remained a subject of controversy even though the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) has indicated the introduction of UNIPASS is expected to make the Ghana National Single Window (GNSW) a complete one-stop shop.
The UNIPASS system incorporates clearance, cargo and information management systems as well as an administration system. It is a new port clearing system that processes documents and payments through one window.
Implementers of the system have stated that it will not require that the valuation and classification as well as risk management and payment to be handled by different entities.
Ghana Link Service Ltd, in collaboration with Custom UNIPASS International Agency (CUPIA) of Korean Customs Service, the designer of the system, are working seriously on the UNIPASS system, which will replace the pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAARS) and the Ghana Customs Management System (GCMS) jointly operated by the Customs division, the Ghana Community Network Service (GCNet) Ltd and West Blue Consulting.
BY Samuel Boadi