The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, (GPHA) has been adjudged the Best Port in Management Information System in the whole of West and Central Africa at the 4th Edition of the African Ports Awards.

The Award ceremony which was held in Ghana as part of the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa’s 39th Council Meeting and Conference recognized GPHA for the massive automation of its port processes as well as the paperless system which commenced on September 1, 2017. 

At the same event, the Port of Tema won the Best Port in Container Terminal productivity and was also presented with an incentive award for the Tema Port Expansion project which when completed by June 2019 will increase the capacity of the Port to about three times its current size.

The acting Director-General of GPHA, Michael Luguje, was also presented with an honorary award for his immense and invaluable contribution to the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa as the outgoing Secretary General.

Speaking after receiving the award, the Ag. Director-General of GPHA, Michael Luguje said GPHA has invested heavily in ICT, which resulted in GPHA playing a leading role in the paperless port project recently spearheaded by Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

Michael Luguje said GPHA is going to work assiduously to reinforce its ICT infrastructure by training personnel and also ensuring the integration between GPHA and Customs systems which will lead to the achievement of the efficiency in the Port clearance process.

He noted that, ICT plays a major role in boosting professionalism in the working environment and encouraged other Director-Generals in the West and Central Africa to build upon their ICT projects to help improve facilitation and efficiency of work in their respective Ports.

He also highlighted that serving customers to their satisfaction is one of GPHA’s priorities, hence, the Port Authority is going to work hard towards rendering good and quality services to their customers.

“I believe this will encourage our clients, the shipping lines to bring more vessels through the Ports of Ghana,” he said.

The Director of Tema Port, Edward Kofi Osei, emphasized that management of Tema Port will continue to put in place good management measures and policies to deal with problems confronting customers who do business with Ghana’s Ports.

He commended the entire management and staff for their hard work which he said has led to the success of the organization.

The Board Chairman of GPHA, Peter Mac Manu said he is pleased with GPHA’s performance and congratulated every individual who has contributed to the success.

He advised management and staff of GPHA to continue to improve upon the good works they have already done to ensure the stability of work in the organization.

The Africans Ports Awards contest was designed to serve as a platform for ports of Western and Central African sub-region, to periodically evaluate their competitiveness through the assessment of a few data pertaining to various areas of their activities.

The award ceremony has since been organized as part of the annual council meeting of PMAWCA which was this year hosted by Ghana.

Pundits in the Management of African Ports have unanimously praised Ghana for hosting the 39th Edition of the PMAWCA Annual Council Meeting and conference successfully and demonstrating a strong sense of commitment to leading the way in the growth of Ports in the Region.