The Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority has debunked rumours that Ghana is losing out on the transit business to neighbours Togo and Ivory Coast.
Speaking on GPHA’s Eye on Port programme, GRA’s Chief Revenue Officer and Officer in Charge of Transit, Gerald Agbettor, countered those assertions and rather pointed out a significant growth in transit trade, specifically in the first quarter of the year.
“Some time ago, I joined the chorus, especially transit business from the ports to the hinterlands; they say that Ghana is losing the transit trade to other places. By my background, I was able to have access to the data manifest and when I went through it, I saw transhipment to Benin, transhipment to Togo, and it became alarming.
But the fact that it is transhipment on the manifest to Togo and Benin does not mean we are losing transit trade to them,” he explained.
Touching on the issue of cargo diversion, Mr Agbettor disclosed that the rate of diversion in Ghana was low; however, he urged that security be tightened at the various ports and transit terminals in order to facilitate fair trade.
He lauded the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority for saving the nation some GH¢90 million in their quest to curb the rate of diversion at the port.
He added that Ghana Link played an instrumental role by providing dedicated monitoring devices on the house-to-house containers that move from the transit terminals to the transit parks.
“It is not really rampant, but it does not mean security should be relaxed, it should rather be tightened. A meeting was recently held with stakeholders to gather data from them so it can be used to best serve customers,” he said.
A council member of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders, Eric Adiamah, who was also a panellist on the show, agreed that transit in Ghana was thriving well.
He stated that the Port of Tema is the most preferred port along the West African coast by many landlocked countries.
Nonetheless, he revealed that the country was losing some volume of transit to neighbouring countries due to regulations and high cost of doing transit business despite the quality services that the Port of Tema provided in terms of safety and security.
“Transit business is thriving well. Only problem we see as operators of transit business is the cost of doing the business.
On the ground, what we know is that we are losing some volumes to neighbouring countries like Lomé. Meanwhile, between Togo port and Tema Port, when it comes to security and quality of service, the Port of Tema is way ahead,” he said.