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Ghana loses GH₵100m port revenue – Minority
Ghana lost GH₵100 million at the ports in three days due to errors in the switch from port management system GCNET to UNIPASS.
Isaac Adongo, the Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central and Minority Spokesperson on Finance who made the claim at a press briefing in Accra yesterday said the anomaly occurred from April 28 to 30 this year.
He said the revenue loss had continued till June causing huge financial loss to the country.
“In Tema, no single end-to-end transaction has gone through since 1st June This is how the system will operate even after the backlog of Wes Blue/GCNET transactions are cleared at excessive revenue loss to the state,” he said.
He said, “No entry has been processed at the Elubo border for one week. All revenue for the state for one week completely lost and entries are not going through at KIA and declarants are compelled to make payments against clearance to be corrected later.”
Mr Adongo alleged that “out of 750 clearing agents on the Wes Blue/GCNET system, only 450 are able to access the dysfunctional ICUMS with no end product. About 300 agents can’t access this bogus system”.
According to Minority Spokesperson following all protocols for a transition and conducting “a pilot would have cleared the way for a seamless transition from an end to end digital system to an end to end digital system”.
He said there was no need to replace the tried and tested GCNET and West Blue adding that the integration proved successful, resulting in government revenues consistently rising (except in 2019 when government reduced benchmark values at the ports) to the admiration of all governments.
The data he said showed that customs revenue generated through the system rose from GH₵7.5 billion in 2015 to about GH₵13.2 billion in 2018. This represented an accumulated growth in customs revenues between 2015 and 2018 of about 76 percent.
“Unsurprisingly, the system the two companies have put together has not had any system breaches since its inception. Indeed, the system’s robustness in the midst of expanded port operations has been remarkable as evidenced through the increased revenues delivered year-in-year-out,” he said.
In spite of these outstanding performances, he said GCNET and West Blue whose contracts were due to expire at the end of 2023 and 2020, respectively, were paid a combined fee of 0.54% of Free on Board (FOB) taking into consideration government’s 35% shares in GCNET.
“Now, after these years of sustained innovations, deliberate investments and visible improvements in the gains, the country is readying itself to throw away its best trade facilitation service providers for a company that neither has a track record nor a concrete, a defined, a professed or a self-procured system to work with,” he said.
Mr Adongo said the emergence of manual releases and clearing of cargo, manual warehousing of cargo, manual releases of export or transhipment cargo and engendering human interference in the clearing system was an attempt to abuse the port system.
The Diaspora Affairs Office at the Office of the President has hosted a delegation of African diaspora women who are in Ghana ahead of a planned Presidential Conferment of Citizenship ceremony.
The Director of Diaspora Affairs, Kofi Okyere Darko, explained in a Facebook post that the visit was a gesture of appreciation by the delegation to the Government of Ghana for its continued efforts to reconnect Africans in the diaspora with their ancestral homeland.
He indicated that the ceremony, scheduled for next Monday, will officially grant Ghanaian citizenship to members of the delegation as part of the country’s broader engagement with the African diaspora.
The delegation was led by Erica Bennett, Founder of the Diaspora Africa Forum.
According to Mr Okyere Darko, her years of advocacy have played an important role in strengthening ties between Africa and people of African descent living abroad.
He noted that the group’s journey towards citizenship represents not only a legal process but also a cultural and spiritual return to their roots.
Also present at the meeting was Natalie Jackson, an attorney who is also expected to receive Ghanaian citizenship during the ceremony. She works closely with renowned civil rights lawyer Ben Crump.
Mr Okyere Darko emphasised that Ghana remains committed to strengthening relationships with the African diaspora and promoting unity, identity, and shared heritage among people of African descent worldwide.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Ghana has signed a debt restructuring agreement with the Kingdom of Belgium as part of efforts to restore the country’s economic stability after the financial crisis that hit the nation in 2022 and 2023.
The Minister of Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson, today disclosed that he signed the agreement on behalf of the Government of Ghana.
He explained that Ghana experienced a very difficult period during the crisis, which forced the government at the time to declare a debt default.
However, he indicated that the country is now recovering and witnessing a significant economic turnaround.
According to him, stronger systems are also being put in place to ensure that Ghana does not return to such a situation again.
Dr Forson noted that the agreement with Belgium is the eighth deal Ghana has concluded with countries under the Official Creditor Committee as part of its external debt restructuring programme.
He expressed appreciation to the Government of Belgium for its support and partnership with Ghana during the process.
The Finance Minister thanked Carole van Eyll, Ambassador of Belgium to Ghana, for her role in strengthening relations between the two countries.
The agreement forms part of Ghana’s broader effort to restructure its external debts and stabilise the economy following the crisis.
By: Jacob Aggrey
