Fees charged by service providers at the port are exorbitant – GUTA

Company News on Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Source: EOP

2019-07-23

The Association of Traders of Ghana has lamented the high fees charged by the agencies in Ghana's ports, saying that this has implications for the country's trade economy.

"The shipping costs are too astronomical, because at present, not a single trader is satisfied with the charges brought to the port of Tema. We have had many meetings with the Department of Finance and they will tell you that we need money. suffering, "said Nana Poku, regional secretary of GUTA for Greater Accra.

The Greater Accra Regional Secretary of the Merchants Association, Nana Poku, addressing the challenges facing merchants across the country, as part of the Eye on Port program, live on national television, said that these fees charged by service providers, in particular those of shipping companies, are unregulated and called on statutory managers, particularly the shippers' authorities of Ghana, who should advocate on their behalf to take responsibility for correcting shortcomings.

"This is where the government should sit down and look at it, and make sure that the Ghana Shippers' Authority is well qualified to engage such companies in the bookings," he warned.

Naa Densua Aryeetey, Head of Shipper Services at the Ghana Shippers Authority, said her group, which is charged with defending the interests of shippers, including importers and exporters of cargo, said that It was difficult to create a profitable environment for shippers in the country. country because of the resistance of agencies offering services to the port.

"It's a very thorny problem, and we had trouble sitting with the shipping companies to do it," she said.

According to her, the current legislation of the Chargers Authority, which allows the agency to negotiate rather than enforce it, is limited and stipulates the need for new laws to support the mandate of the agency. ;Authority.

"Both of you said that the authority of the shippers of Ghana must be empowered and that is the fact.We must re-examine the law, the law came into force as early as 1974", she suggested.

She revealed, however, that her company was engaged in ongoing awareness programs with merchants to inform them of sector reforms and developments, as well as to publish royalties and royalties on the Shippers' Authority website. to stay in close contact with the customers of the port.

"We meet them, other than the shipper committees they attend, which include used clothing dealers, mobile phone resellers, etc. We go there frequently."

Naa Densua Aryeetey said the Ghana Shippers' Authority had signed a memorandum of understanding with the shipping companies to ensure that the shipping companies did not unilaterally increase their tariffs.

"The Ministry of Transport has arrived and we have signed a protocol agreement with the shipping companies and agreed that whenever they introduce new fees, they should inform us, so that we can also discuss with importers and exporters, "she said.

Nana Poku asked service providers to compromise on certain service charges to make it easier for importers.

"The technical details that these service providers use to justify payments are not of primary interest to traders, and they are generally interested in getting their cargo out of the port on time and being able to sell it to pay for it. the sums they owe mostly to the banks, "he said.

With regard to the handling fees in the ports, he has launched a call for further reduction to relieve the local market, which he described as having trouble compensating for the losses.

He admitted that GUTA had not done enough to ensure that its concerns were formally communicated to the necessary authorities and did so to attract the necessary attention.

The Association of Traders of Ghana and the Ghana Shippers' Authority have decided to work more closely, urgently, to eliminate the problem of unregulated charges, particularly from private institutions in Ghana's ports.

"If the authority of the Ghanaian shippers is interested, the GUTA office for Greater Accra can give them offices, and after the program, we will work in this direction so that we can collaborate more quickly to improve the situation," he said. proposed the executive of GUTA. .