‘Gov’t must recognize importers contribution’

Government has been called upon to recognize the contribution of importers to Ghana’s revenue generation and formulate policies that would be beneficial to them.

Mr Carlos Ahenkorah, Chief Executive Officer of Carlo King Freight Logistics, a freight forwarding company, said importers must be put into a special group for government to look into and solve their problems.

Mr Ahenkorah, who was a former president of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF), said the need for the contributions of importers to be recognized could not be overemphasized as according to him “without them all import revenue to the country would not be realized”.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, he said in 2014, due to unfavourable import policies and general economic problems in the country, the total output for cargo was not encouraging as it fell below expectation.

He explained that the situation led to less business activities for freight forwarders.

He added that the situation was worsened during the period the Ghana Cedi depreciated against the major currencies which led to some importers either reshipping their goods back to the country of origin or through neighbouring countries because of high cost of clearing in Ghana.

Mr Ahenkorah said some importers’ capital also eroded as the auction team from the presidency confiscated their goods and auctioned them because of their inability to raise money to clear the said goods.

He urged the government to formulate policies that would mitigate the challenges importers faced as a measure to increase import revenues.

He appealed to government to put in place measures that would improve the economy in the year 2015 as most businesses operating in the country experienced difficulties in 2014 due to the cedi depreciation and intense power outages.

The CEO of Carlo King indicated that the situation led to no salary increment, incentives and bonuses for most workers both in the private and public sector leading to low motivation among workers.

He called for a very low interest rates to enable businesses borrow from the bank to expand and create job for the teeming unemployed youth.