The Ghana Shippers Authority (GSA) on Thursday held a stakeholders forum in Accra as part of measures to ensure that the country’s ports go paperless successfully.

Mrs Naa Densua Aryeetey, the Head of Shipper Services, GSA, said it was important that GSA sensitized shippers on issues affecting their operations.

She said one key aim of the meeting was to engage organisations connected to the work of shippers, such as the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority and the Ghana Airports Company Limited, for better understanding and effective collaboration.

Mrs Aryeetey said this was mainly with respect to the government directive that all ports in the country go paperless with effect from September 1, 2017.

She said Ghana was currently working on expediting the shipment of goods at the country’s ports, as a follow-up to Ghana ratifying a number of agreements with the World Trade Organisation.

Mrs Aryeetey said the GSA had put in place a series of programs, to sensitize shippers in the country on the transition to paperless operations.

“We will have follow-up educative programmes, which are planned to last all year long,” she said, adding that this would ensure the new system was well understood to become successful.

It would be recalled that the Vice President had urged stakeholders to comply to ensure that Ghana’s ports go paperless by September 1 to avoid sanctioning.