Starting September, 2017 inspection of goods that arrive at both the Tema and Takoradi Ports will be jointly done by the various state agencies.

Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo said the conventional procedure where the various state agencies conduct their inspections separately will no longer hold.

Inspections at the ports are done by Ghana Standards Authority, Customs, National Security and the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) but this will stop since it has been blamed for causing delays and loss of revenue to government.

The aim of the initiative is to also reduce the time that importers spend in the clearing of their goods.

According to Joy News’ Elton Jon Brobbey who was on the inspection tour with the Minister, it became clear after their tour that importers are made to pay penalties for delays.

Mr Marfo said government was very concerned about the development and it is looking forward to making the two ports the preferred hub in West Africa, noting they can only achieve this if they deal with such challenges.

To that effect, he said the resolution of the part of government is that from September 1, all the aforementioned will all carry out their inspection at the same time and place.

The former Finance Minster noted that with this in place, importers would within a limited time, have their goods inspected and make payment if they have to and take their goods.

The Minister is hopeful that all stakeholders will commit themselves to the pact and comply from September 1.

Although the media was not privy to the closed-door discussion by the stakeholders, Mr Marfo said the Vice-President made the suggestion when they held the ports efficiency conference.  

At the conference, they came out with three areas to implement including the port inspection, removal of barriers on transit roads and issue of single window.

The Director-General of the Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority (GHAPOHA), James Asare Ansah, speaking on the issue of a possible turf war between West Blue Consulting and GCNet who are responsible for operating the single window system, said it is a matter being discussed. 

He said the Authority is hopeful eventually one company will be operating the open window system at the ports by September 1.

There were complaints of police delaying importers by checking documents and good which has already been passed at the ports especially during transit.