The Ghana Community Network Services Ltd (GCNet) has been launched in Accra to accelerate the clearance process.

In an address, Nortey K. Omaboe, executive chairman of the GCNet, said the launch represents a corporate commitment to work in cooperation with customs and all other stakeholders within both the public sector and the business community, propose and implement new solutions that will continuously streamline and facilitate trade in Ghana.

Omaboe said there are a number of salient points related to the development of the project over the past two years, which cannot possibly be captured visually. The first of these is the commitment and focus which the top management of CEPS has manifested over the necessity and importance of the system.

He said, “we have all heard the remarks of the Commissioner of CEPS, and can bear testimony to the determination and lofty goals to which the Service will aspire, through the implementation of GCNet,” adding that without this commitment, it would have been impossible to overcome the challenges and obstacles of this major change-management process.

Over the past few months, in almost every single forum which has involved the private sector, the issue of bottlenecks in the clearance of goods has been high on the agenda. “We have lived through such a partnership with GCNet, and it has not been an easy evolution by any measure. We cannot deny that there are still gaps over some conceptual and practical issues such as communication, coordination, working norms, and other misperceptions, which invariably complicate the life-cycle of projects such as this,” he noted.

He said this is the way forward for the country. Private sector capital, and private technology should be employed to complement the objectives of statutory institutions, in the quest to meet national obligations and development target.

“It is the end-result that is most important in all of these ventures. If in doing so we achieve greater efficiency, greater productivity, and move the economy forward, certainly these are concrete positive contributions for the wider good of the country,” Omaboe said.