By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Nov. 24, GNA – The Centre for International Maritime Affairs, Ghana (CIMAG), has urged maritime stakeholders to collaborate and support the implementation of Ghana’s 24-hour port operations.
Ghana officially rolled out 24-hour operations at the ports of Tema and Takoradi in July 2025 as part of the government’s 24-hour economy policy.
Mr Albert Derrick Fiatui, the Executive Director of CIMAG, speaking at a media forum powered by the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), said port operations and maritime were bright for Ghana, noting it was important for stakeholders to collaborate and support the implementation.
Mr Fiatui said they could strengthen the policy through information sharing and feedback to the port authorities.
He noted that so far, the policy implementation was going well, and port officials and the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority were doing well so far, indicating that challenges were expected with a new policy, but there was the need to encourage them to do more.
He acknowledged that operating the 24-hour port service meant Ghana had decided to come up to speed with the successful global businesses, stating that “it’s exciting and interesting knowing that the policy is yielding some positive impacts; we have also picked up information that the policy is impacting positively, and our stakeholders are excited.”
The CIMAG executive director said the policy has been done elsewhere, explaining that successful maritime countries such as Singapore, Dubai, Rotterdam, and others are all into the 24-hour operations, leading to the doubling of their revenue and operations.
“From where we sit, we are observing critically and think that the same impact is coming to the Ghanaian economy because we know that some private organisations in the sector have started engaging more hands to be able to operate around the clock,” he stated.
He reiterated that the night operations were helping in the reduction of demurrage paid by importers, explaining that hitherto, a lot of them complained severely about demurrage.
Mr Fiatui stressed that the policy was a game changer, adding that CIMAG would continue to advocate Ghana to learn from those who have successfully implemented similar policies.
He announced that his outfit was working closely with the 24-hour secretariat to get a lot of people educated to appreciate collaboration to make the programme successful.
He noted that they had identified that the implementation of a multimodal transportation system serves as a catalyst for a country to have successful 24-hour services.
“Currently, we have only the uni-modal system, which is the road transport system. We all know the challenges: traffic, bad roads, and the port road to GPHA headquarters having big potholes. We need to diversify to make sure that we invest in transport infrastructure, rail, and inland waterways. It is a fact that we cannot be successful with this if we are not implementing a proper multimodal transport system.”
He asked authorities to take a good look at the system, especially technology-wise, and improve the services and operations to replace some of the manual processes.
GNA
Edited by George-Ramsey Benamba