Importers and exporters back GSA's cap on container charges

The Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana (IEAG) has declared a victory for the domestic trading community, throwing its “full support” behind the Ghana Shippers’ Authority (GSA) directive to slash and cap Container Administrative Charges (CAC) at the nation’s ports.

In a statement released on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, IEAG described the regulatory intervention as “timely and long overdue”, ending decades of what it terms “unjustified” financial bleeding by international shipping lines. The new directive, which caps the charge at GH₵550 per Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit (TEU), is set to take effect on May 1, 2026.

The IEAG’s endorsement highlights a systemic grievance: the claim that shipping lines have been forcing Ghanaian businesses to “pay twice for the same service”.

According to the IEAG, legitimate costs—such as port dues and terminal handling—are already baked into the freight rates paid by shippers. The additional administrative charge is therefore viewed as a redundant cost recovery mechanism.

“Ghanaian businesses have, for years, been burdened by excessive, opaque and unjustified charges imposed by international shipping lines and their local agents,” the IEAG asserted. These practices, the group noted, have not only inflated the cost of doing business but have fundamentally “weakened Ghana’s competitiveness as a regional trade hub”.

The scale of the financial impact is staggering. IEAG estimates reveal that in 2024 alone, Ghanaian traders were slapped with approximately GH₵1.69 billion (roughly US$108 million) in Container Administrative Charges.

The Association pointed out a disturbing regional disparity that suggests Ghana has become an outlier in West African trade costs.

While neighbouring competitors like Togo, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria maintain charges between US$30 and US$68 per container, fees in Ghana have ballooned to as high as US$165 per TEU.

The Association provided historical context to the charge, explaining that the CAC was a temporary measure introduced in the 1980s when Ghana’s port infrastructure was primitive. Today, with the multi-million-dollar automation and modernisation of the Tema and Takoradi ports, the IEAG argues the original rationale for the fee has vanished.

The group also took a hardline stance against reports of shipping line employees threatening industrial action or resistance to the new cap.

“Attempts to resist or undermine this reform through threats or pressure tactics will not succeed,” the statement concluded, dismissing such threats as a desperate effort to protect foreign exchange outflows that see revenues from freight and demurrage repatriated abroad with “minimal direct benefit to Ghana’s economy.”

The IEAG has framed the GSA’s decision to cap the fee at GH₵550 as a “balanced intervention”—one that allows for operational flexibility while shielding the Ghanaian consumer from the inflationary pressures of high import costs.

As the May 1 deadline approaches, the Association is calling for total compliance from all stakeholders, signalling that the era of “unchecked” charges is officially over.

The spotlight now shifts to the international shipping lines to see if they will fall in line with the new price ceiling or face further regulatory sanctions in Ghana’s increasingly assertive maritime sector.