Director General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Michael Luguje, has disclosed that a national supply chain management skills development and awareness campaign is needed in order to drive local growth and participation in the ocean economy.

Through a corporate citizenry partnership with Professor Douglas Boateng, GPHA and the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) will make limited copies of the world’s only inclusive supply chain management compendium, available to select organisations and individuals operating in amongst others, Ghana’s maritime supply chain sector.

According to Mr. Luguje, his outfit was pleased to co-sponsor the books which they believe are supportive of sectorial efforts and the nation’s long-term industrialisation and self-sufficiency drive.

“One of GPHA’s core mandate is to offer world class maritime related supply chain management services to our clients. It is certainly in our long-term interest for Ghanaians to understand the impact that supply chain management has on both the economy and the maritime sector. For GPHA, increased local value addition through service delivery quality will positively impact inward and outward traffic flows at our various ports, plus enable us to become the leading trade and logistics hub in the ECOWAS sub region,” he said.
‘… It is for this reason that GPHA decided to partner with Prof Boateng in this strategically important national skills development initiative. “Without doubt, effective supply chain management is a key component of the future industrialisation of Ghana and the entire Africa. This development initiative will innovatively help to create awareness of the various aspects of supply chain management and will assist with the upskilling of professionals operating in both the public and private sectors, as well as within the maritime related value chains,” affirmed Mr Luguje.

For his part, Director General of the GMA, Kwame Owusu, stressed that GMA’s mandate was to ensure an efficient, cost effective and orderly provision of services in the shipping industry in line with government policies.

he stressed that “essential to this was the continuous assessment of the knowledge requirements of the maritime industry. Knowledge of the various aspects of supply chain management was rapidly emerging as critical to the success of this sector”.

He added that “For GMA, a better understanding of supply chain management will not only help with the implementation of policies for the development and maintenance of maritime infrastructure, such as ports and harbours, in the country and the emerging $3 trillion blue economy, but will also assist to regulate and monitor the activities of shipping agents, freight forwarders and similar shipping service providers”.

Commenting on the partnership, Prof. Boateng said: “Availability of the Compendium of Supply Chain Management Terms will increase national awareness of the inextricable link between supply chain management, Ghana’s long-term industrialisation, job creation, public sector and state-owned institutional performance and productivity improvement efforts.”

He added that the developed world has successfully used supply chain management to industrialise, improve government service delivery quality, create sustainable jobs, undertake value addition to their resources and to promote small to medium-sized enterprise growth.

“Without SCM professional skills, coupled with a coherent and long-term supply chain management strategy, Ghana will not be able to achieve the Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda, the 17 UN SDGs and the 2030 Vision,” he concluded.