Samuel Agyemang’s response to IMANI’s views on Ghana’s ports

Advancing his voice to the issue of how to improve efficient Port operations and particularly addressing some of the issues raised by the IMANI Chief, the seasoned journalist and ace reporter Samuel Agyemang highlighted the following in his article posted on the IMANI WhatsApp platform:

“Franklin Cudjoe, some excellent points made up there. But obviously a few pretty much contentious ones as well. Firstly, there are progressive plans to make the joint Port inspection electronically driven. In this case all other agencies will have the opportunity to execute their legally mandated inspections and generate their expected revenues without interfering in each other's duties. And assume the Port Authority and Customs are perhaps the only agencies that may be physically allowed to be present, for the fact that the other agencies are not physically present, there will be no need for the two core agencies to feel edgy or get overly excited about superiority as in the case of Port of Singapore where there are 41 agencies all interested in the sea trade process yet only 2 are physically present in the Port; i.e Customs and Port Authority yet over 70% of containers that arrive in that country exit by the next day, hence no congestion there and so far there are no indications that one agency feels more superior than the other and thereby affecting turnaround time of vessels or speedy clearance of goods/cargo. On the contrary, the ease of doing business in Singapore has been number one all this while. So with effective implementation of the joint Port inspection backed with efficient automation systems, we may be smiling soon at the way business is done at Ghana’s Ports.

On the issue of reducing container traffic, am sure you meant to say reducing the presence of uncleared or yet to be cleared containers out of the port which is what actually create the congestion you are worried about. As for container traffic every country seeks to increase it, because, the higher you get the bigger your economy grows...i.e the more people import or export as a country, the bigger the economy of Ghana gets. That's why we even market our ports to the transit countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, in order to capture that market from Ivory Coast and Togo so that the Transit countries use our ports to export or import for us to increase container traffic. Ghana is also hoping to grow its container traffic. Last year container traffic in Tema Port for instance grew a little close to 900, 000 TEUs (20 footer Equivalent Unit) and this is very small for a country of about 30million population whiles Dubai which is just about 2.8million people are doing around 10 million TEUs annually. Therefore, its Ghana’s desire to grow its container traffic.

However, in seeking to increase container traffic, we should be able to avoid congestion at our Ports which I believe is your main concern. Because unlike Ghana, Dubai for instance which receive almost 10 times more traffic than Ghana, it takes only 1minute 6 seconds for containers to exit the gates of the Ports of Dubai, so in spite of the large Traffic, congestion is not a concern at the Ports in Dubai.

And yes, you were on point with investment in the rail lines as one of the measures that can help reduce delays of clearing containers at the Ports. Again, you are right about an inland Port like the Boankra project which intended to move all containers/cargo meant for Kumasi and the Northern half of Ghana to be stacked for onward clearance. But the lack of rail lines and other intermodal transportation challenges rear their heads and that objective has not been achieved yet.

In fact FC, I don't think the previous (NDC) government was ill-advised on the expansion of both Tema and Takoradi Ports because, addressing the issue of congestion, delays and high cost of port business invokes holistic approach, and principal of these approaches are (1) having the requisite capacity at Ports, (i.e. equipment/logistics and space) (2) Effective clearance processes (here, automated systems is often prescribed) (3) Efficient intermodal transportation systems (i.e rail and smooth road links).

Indeed, you will need all the above 3 to be fairly well positioned to effectively facilitate trade and also rake in in the desired revenue. So the previous government's intervention with the port expansion was to provide the capacity in terms of space and equipment. Because, currently all the berths in Ghana's Ports have just about 11m drafts which is the depth of the sea where vessels berth(or park in lay terms). While other countries including Togo who just got help from MSC to expand its Ports has 16m drafts. This situation does not allow bigger vessels to come into Ghana but go to the neighbouring countries. Already we had dredged our sea beds from 9m averagely to the 11m averagely. So the only alternative was to look at expanding. And don't forget, Togo has expanded its Ports and now has 16m drafts berths, Ivory Coast has also begun an ambitious expansion project though, they already had deeper berths of 14meters, that’s why the big vessel that brought the Karpower barge had to leave the barge in Abidjan Port before we escorted it to Ghana. With this background, not to have expanded Ghana’s Ports would have been a disaster (i.e, no capacity to accommodate bigger vessels which require deeper drafts and those are the vessels that are carrying cargo these days. Again, fortunately for Ghana though, our kind of expansion is far bigger than what our neighbours have done, therefore leaves is in a very comfortable position to lead the competition in the Sub-region.

But in addition to expanding, that is where your concern comes in. We (Ghana) should now begin to tackle the other 2 areas that can make us more efficient and compete favourably. i.e (1) transportation and (2) clearance systems/procedures.

That is why the move to prioritize rail by this (NPP) government is a great one. Also, even the better, is the step by the Vice president to declare 100% paperless systems to improve the clearance process, eliminate customs checks to free the corridors of harassment and have a Joint Port Inspection by state inspection regulatory agencies.

I rather think the Boankra project is what seems like buying a padlock before building you gate, just because padlock is cheaper and that's what you could afford first. It's a project that had a building and office facilities built in Boankra near my hometown without considering how the cargo from Tema and Takoradi can be transported there, just because it was easier and cheaper to put up the building than constructing a rail line. I have seen some Thai and Chinese people working on the Tema Akosombo rail line. I think the Tema to Boankra rail line should be another priority ASAP as well.

On your final point on under/over valuation, wrong description of goods and so on, I think it's purely a question of political will to see that perpetrators are handsomely punished to prevent recurrence. All traders/businesses involved in wrongly describing and under valuing their goods to evade tax have been fished out by the systems of GCNET and West Blue and Customs know them but are unable to deal with them due to names involved. It just requires “the will” Franklin. And as to the GCNET West Blue tassel I think you can speak to the stakeholders in the Port business like the Vice President is seeking to do and am sure in the end you may have the right lenses on, *political or professional*. Only be guided, that whiles West Blue reports to the Finance Ministry, GCNET reports to the Trade Ministry; Revenue Generation versus Trade Facilitation. But the better agree at some point or the ordinary trader and the mass public will suffer.