GHANA PORTS & HARBORS AUTHORITY TO HALT INEFFICIENCIES AT THE PORTS

The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has directed the country’s port authorities to act decisively in halting the inefficiencies at the ports. Inefficiencies and other bottlenecks, he said, had resulted in significant losses in revenue to the state, businesses and individuals.

The Vice-President gave the directive at the opening of the Port Efficiency Conference in Accra yesterday and expressed the government’s determination to work with the port authorities in dealing with the situation.

He noted that, in spite of the introduction of the Destination Inspection Scheme and the single window systems, aimed at addressing the inefficiencies at the ports, there were still bottlenecks militating against their efficient functioning.

Dr Bawumia said that the issue of an ineffective customs valuation system still needed to be addressed, while the coordination of port activities, systems operations and linkages were also major concerns that breed corruption and waste.

Cargo clearance improvements made had been very slow and that the time cargo spent at the ports, was still high, compared to other parts of the world.

In 2016 alone importers paid an estimated $100 million in demurrage charges. “This is not the kind of revenue we need or want to build this country. It is a punitive cost, an inefficiency cost. It is an avoidable cost, and it only goes to demonstrate that shippers are not releasing containers to the shipping lines in good time.

A study, on “Ships Time in Port, an International Comparison,” revealed the following as average time in port for vessels worldwide:

Europe was about 25 hours

East & North Asia was about 17 hours

South Africa was 64 hours

Port of Tema was about 103 hours