Paperless: Port revenue shoots from GHC130m to GHC230m

Revenue collection at the ports in the first week of September has shot up to GHC230 million compared to the GHC130 which was raised same time last year, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has revealed.

He said the development is as a result of the paperless system which has been introduced at the ports.

“On September 1, we launched the paperless [system], but of course not without attempts to actually derail the process, because it’s hurting a lot of people who were making free money and people who used to take two weeks to clear a container after one day of delay were protesting. Are you protesting the system or something else?”

“The results are amazing. We just looked at data this morning – first week of collections under the paperless system in September this year compared to last year first week of collections in September 2016, and collections have gone up by 56 percent; 56 percent from around GHc130 million to GHc230 million in one week,” Bawumia said at an orientation ceremony for National Service Personnel who have posted to National Communications Authority.

Meanwhile on Monday, officials in charge of the paperless system at the Ports and Harbors resorted to blending the newly introduced system with the manual one.

This follows the challenges that characterized the implementation of the paperless system introduced just 11 days ago.

Reporting from the Tema port, Starr Business’ Kennedy Mornah said clearing agents are still complaining about delays in getting their goods cleared days after managers of the Ghana Ports and Harbor promised to revise strategies towards addressing the challenges facing the ongoing implementation of the paperless system.

He said “most of the process ongoing right now…especially declarations that had been sent earlier to [authorities] are now going through manually.”