By Laudia Sawer
Tema, April 12, GNA — Key stakeholders in the port sector of Ghana have participated in a business forum organised by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) to discuss the cost of doing business at Ghana’s ports.
The stakeholders, made up of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), shipping lines, the Ghana Shippers Authority (GSA), and some logistics firms, also discussed the cost implications for the country’s import and export trade.
Mr. Khalid Nuhu, the General Manager for Corporate Planning at the GPHA, said the Port Authority regulated the charging system at the port in a balanced manner by ensuring that private entities did not overcharge and importers also did not underpay for services rendered to them.
“Everyone that has been licenced or has a concession with GPHA operates under the tariffs set by GPHA. So, if you aggregate the total tariffs of GPHA in relation to what has been identified as a component of the cost of doing business, on a scale of 1 to 100, GPHA is less than 10%,” he revealed.
He said GPHA had invested a lot in infrastructure at the port to serve the port community efficiently, indicating that the elimination of inefficiencies, delays, and bureaucracies would go a long way toward reducing the cost of doing business at the ports.
Mr. Adam Ayarna Imoro, an Executive Member of the Ship Owners and Agents Association of Ghana (SOAAG), stated that shipping line charges enable them to sustain their businesses.
He debunked the assertions in the sector that shipping lines were a rip-off and making the cost of doing business in Ghana’s ports very expensive and high; therefore, they were losing cargo to Lomé, as not true, stressing that, “I checked with all the shipping lines here to know if they were losing containers, and they told me it was not true. Cargo meant for Ghana comes to Ghana.”
Ms. Monica Josiah, the Head of Shipper Services and Trade Facilitation at the Ghana Shippers Authority (GSA), revealed that a look at some ports in West Africa showed that government taxes take a greater chunk of the cost.
She added that “for instance, in Tema, on some selected commodities, we had 91.7% as government taxes, then in Abidjan, 92.1%, and in Lomé, 89.2%; for handling charges, that is, receipts and delivery charges by GPHA, it was just 2.5% in Tema, then 2.6% in Abidjan, and Lomé is about 2.4%.”
GNA