Former Rector of GIMPA Professor Stephen Adei has urged the incoming Director General of the Ghana Ports and harbors Authority, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie,  to clamp down on corrupt port officials and reduce the bureaucracy in clearing goods.

Mr . Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Sir John, is set to assume the vacant post of Director General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA). He takes over from Mr. Richard Anamoo, who was relieved of his post as Director General of the GPHA last Monday.

Mr.Afriyie previously worked at the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) as a Deputy Chief Executive Officer in an acting position during former President John Kufuor’s administration,  and also as head of Legal Services. Speaking at a leadership forum organized by the Canada-Ghana Chamber of Commerce, Prof. Adei said Ghana must streamline its port system like Namibia has done.

“Somebody like me with a PHD in international trade and finance cannot even clear a pencil from the port, I require a semi-literate agent …why because he always knows where to pay the bribe. What struck me about Namibia which I always use as an example, not because i love Namibia than Ghana, but because I happen to be the UN ambassador there for four and half years and it takes  only  three steps to clear  goods at  Walvis bay, a port  in Namibia”.