The West African transit trade passing through the ports of Ghana to their destinations in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger has assumed an import feature in the shipping activities of Ghana. This has been the result of the unstable political environment in the port of Abidjan and other shipping difficulties in other neighbouring ports.

Despite the systems like what has been dubbed solidarity of the sea in the port of Lome where transit cargo is escorted out of the borders of Togo with the understanding and involvement of all security agencies, the ports Ghana have recommended themselves as interfaces with a certain level of security, good road haulage system and operational finesse that make the transit importers prefer them to other ports in the sub region. Yet difficulties still abound leading to dissatisfaction and complaints from transit importers and their agents at various forums.

The Ghana Shippers’ Authority who for some times now has been in the forefront in promoting the Ghanaian corridor for the transiting of cargo to our neighbours in the landlocked countries through the entering into memoranda of understanding with the shipper organisations in these countries has become concerned about the complaints. Unfortunately detailed information about the transit trade in the sub region which would enable the Authority to intervene to address some of the complaints was lacking.

The study on the transit trade in West Africa was therefore an attempt to gather relevant information about the costs, transportation difficulties and other governmental requirement both in the transiting countries as well as in the landlocked countries themselves. It is also to investigate, analyse and identify critical factors that encourage the use of the different sea ports of the sub region.

The study has revealed that major imports for Burkina Faso seem to pass through the port of Tema in Ghana while major Malian imports are routed through the ports of Dakar and Abidjan. In the case of Niger the port of Cotonou handles the import cargo.

The major mode of transporting exports and imports to and from the ports in the sub region is haulage by road. The advantage of the Ghanaian corridor includes good roads, trucks and high security for the transit goods. However the advantage of the Ghanaian corridor is eroded by the high custom bond of 1% of CIF as against 0.25% of CIF in the Francophone ports, language difficulties, the breaking of transit container seals by customs for physical examination and numerous checkpoints.

Frequent complaints of thefts at the ports of Takoradi and Tema to the Ghana Shippers’ Authority and concerns raised by shipping agents and other port users at various forums necessitated the survey of port users on their perception of pilfering in the Ghanaian ports.

Thefts at the ports adversely affect the shipping industry, the national economy and the image of the ports. Items stolen include components of vehicles, truck tyres, household goods, bagged rice and sugar.

Thefts at the ports apart from making imports expensive and exports uncompetitive on the international markets, lead to revenue loss from custom duty, VAT and other such revenues generated from international trade. In order not to dent the images of the ports of Ghana leading to high risk premiums being placed on items passing through and to be in a good position to make suggestions to stem the problem, the Authority embarked upon a survey of the perceptions of stakeholders on the issue.

The survey revealed that the perception of the incidence of thefts in the port of Tema was much higher than that of Takoradi.

The New Container Platform and the car park in the port of Takoradi were the high risk areas for theft while the Korea Yard, Depot 6 and the TCT at the port Tema came out as the risky areas. Cause of theft was attributed to poor lighting, presence of unauthorised personnel, inadequate security presence and negligence of shore operators as well as a poor attitude of security personnel at the two ports.

It was also revealed that most thefts are not reported to appropriate authority since most stakeholders felt the procedures are too cumbersome and takes too much of one’s time. Even of more concern is the fact that most self declarants do not take insurance cover for their imports.

The ports of Ghana have undergone several rehabilitations with the objective of making them efficient and ultimately the gateway to the sub region in terms of shipping.

However, efficient port goes beyond good berthing facilities and cargo handling equipment, since navigational operations, stevedoring and shore handling operations, customs clearance procedures and all documentation processes also contribute to the cost effectiveness as well as the competitiveness of a port.

Lack of comparative information on cargo clearance procedures, charges, taxes, etc in ports of the sub region made it difficult to analyse the competitiveness of the ports of Ghana in relations to those in the sub region. Thus the cargo clearance procedures and charges survey was embarked upon to seek information on the ports in the sub region in order to establish a basis for comparative analysis.

 Highlight of the Survey:

Almost the same shipping lines and agencies are involved in the shipping business in the ports in the sub region, thus the documents required for cargo clearance were much the same.

The cargo clearance procedures in all the ports surveyed involved customs house broking agents who acquire and process the necessary documents for the release of cargo.

All the ports use one form of electronic system or other in their cargo clearance system. Components of customs duty levied in the ports of the sub region were quite similar, especially those of the Francophone countries.

Terminal/shorehandling charges also follow a similar pattern in the ports of the sub region which may be attributed to the fact that almost the same shipping lines and agencies operate in these ports.

The charges themselves were of various magnitudes and were applied in varying dimension. Storage and warehousing in the ports were of varying dimension with different number of free days before charging commences.

Shipping line charges differ from port to port and are dependent on the situation in each port.

The Lome survey came about as a result of concerns about revenue generation by the customs not meeting set targets due to allegations of cargo being routed through the port of Lome.

The Importers’ preference for the port of Lome, which was thought to be negatively affecting CEPS revenues, was said to be motivated by speedy and more flexible conditions for clearance of cargo.

Unfortunately needed comparative information on the port of Lome for assessing the problem was unavailable.

The survey was therefore to gather necessary information on cargo clearance procedures, the custom taxes, shipping lines charges, warehousing and storage charges and terminal/shorehandling charges in the port of Lome.

Indications from the survey were that there was a decrease of about 7% in the transit import traffic for the port of Lome for the period January to April 2006 as compared to same period in 2005. Shortfall in revenue generation at the port of Tema may be due to other causes than Ghanaian cargo being cleared through the port of Lome. Views from the CEPS at Aflao indicated that more cargo crossed the border into Lome during the period than the amount of cargo cleared into Ghana.

The survey also revealed that the cargo clearance system of the port of Lome was not too different from what pertains in Tema. The custom procedure required that a customs house agent acquire and process necessary documents on behalf of the importer. An electronic system called the SIDONIA is used in the generation of the necessary duties and taxes for payment to the custom.

According to some of the respondents if all documents were available and in order, cargo can be cleared within 24 hours. Importers pay fees to agencies such as COTECNA (inspection fee of 0.75% of CIF), the port authority, the chamber commerce and shipping lines. Demurrage charges for a dry container (both 20 and 40 footer) begin after 13 free days.

For storage and warehousing, while payment commences after 4 free days for Togolese cargo, payment for transit cargo begins after 25 free days. Burkina Faso cargo constitutes the major transit cargo in the port of Lome.

At a GSA conference organised for importers and exporters to discuss issues affecting the shipping industry in Ghana, it was pointed out that despite the introduction of the Ghana Custom Management System (GCMS)/ the Ghana Community Network (GC Net) cargo clearance was still fraught with delays and difficulties.

A suggestion was made that a leaf should be taken from the operations of the port of Banjul in the Gambia because it was said their system of cargo clearance was simple, less expensive and very speedy. The Gambia survey was thus to gather information on the cargo clearance system and the charges in the port of Banjul in order to establish a basis for comparison.

The port of Banjul is a small port with about four berths, each of slightly over 100 metres in length. Cargo traffic for the period 2002 to 2006 was between 956,000 tonnes and 1.04 million tonnes. The number of vessels calling at the port for the period 2003 and 2006 was on the decline, moving from 319 in 2003 to 286 in 2004 and 283 in 2005, while in 2006 the number was 258.

However, within the only container terminal in the port, the authorities have created what is termed the Document Handling Centre (DHC) where all terminal operators and the physical examination section of the custom department are housed. There is a high level of cooperation and comradeship among the agencies housed in the DHC such that an agent need not be apprehensive about any difficulties since he would be directed how to proceed.

Another issue of great interest is what the stakeholders termed the honour of the profession where agents display such level of honesty that the physical examination by custom may be cursory or done at the premises of the importer, especially in the case of homogeneous and very well packaged cargoes with invoices.

The clearing agency profession in the port of Banjul is not highly organised as in Ghana though there is an association whose executives were preparing to call a general meeting to revamp the association. As in Ghana, there are lots of unlicensed agents who use the declarant numbers of licensed agents to do their business.

Destination inspection does not feature in the cargo clearance system of the port of Banjul since the determination of the duty and tax that an importer pays is carried out by the valuation section of the custom department. The composition of the import duty was quite the same as in the Tema port though the levels are different in many cases.