Government has announced three major policy initiatives that have the potential of revolutionalising the country’s ports.
They include mandatory joint inspection by key industry players- Ghana Community Network (GCNET) and West Blue Consulting, 100 percent paperless clearing process and the removal of all customs barriers on the roads.
Announcing the decision after the ‘Port Efficiency Conference’ in Accra, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said the Economic Management Team, along with the Ministries of Trade and Industry, Transport and Finance, are all going to sit together in the next few weeks, synthesis all of this information and come up with a clear roadmap in terms of reforms that we are going to be announcing in the next four weeks.”
Policy
With effect from September 1, this year, he said there would be mandatory joint inspections and examinations of containers at the ports.
From that time on, he indicated “Ghana is going 100 percent paperless at the port September 1.”
To that end, he insisted “we need a lot of coordination among our agencies at the port; GCNET said they have a single window, West Blue also says they have a single window. That makes it two single windows; so in practice we have a double window.”
“The benefit of the single window is not quite there.”
The third policy reform that government has resolved to implement has do with the transit corridors and the barriers that inhibit transit trade, he said, adding that “all internal customs barriers are to be eliminated from September 1.”
Directive
The Vice President asked the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ghana Ports and Habours Authority (GPHA) to take note and act accordingly.
He was of the conviction that it would change Ghana’s competitiveness in the sub-region, saying “we’ve looked at the revenues that are been generated from these barriers and they are really nothing to write home about.”
He also ordered the Customs Division of the GRA to redeploy staff who used to perform those duties.
He also hinted “the whole issues that have to do with multiple agencies we are going to deal with it.”
For him, “We need to be a bit more outward looking when we think about our port services because we are surrounded by a lot of opportunities.”
“The data from the World Bank shows that in terms of our market share for example in the trade to Burkina Faso, it hasn’t really increased so we should try to be a bit more proactive in that direction,” he revealed.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent