The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) is reviewing the laws governing its operations to strengthen its control of maritime trade activities at the country's ports and also increase the fortunes of local industry players.

Mr. Paul Ansah Asare, Marketing and Public Relations Manager, who disclosed this to the B&FT in an interview, said the review is in tandem with management’s quest for improved efficiency and productivity and also give more leverage to Ghanaian business along the various services value chain.

“We are currently reviewing our laws to enable us deal with contemporary demands in the industry; Ghana’s ports have transitioned from a landlord/services port with several private sector players. This bureaucratic chain can affect the port both positively and negatively hence the need for proper control and supervision.

“We also recognise that the port industry is very lucrative and for that matter local players in the various services value chain will get more leverage in the bid to position the ports to support economic development.

“Ghanaian businesses will have a competitive urge in line with management’s resolve to implement enhanced local content in the sea trade sector; this is a prime focus of the GPHA. We have done some level of consultation and proposals have been drafted for submission to appropriate government agencies,” he said.

The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) is close to handling a combined container capacity of one million Twenty-Equivalent Units (TEUs) by close of the year at the Tema and Takoradi ports, with best estimates showing the figure could double by 2028.

The bright prospects are due to the consistent surge in container traffic to the two ports over the last four years and ongoing expansion projects which are expected to create space for more vessels to call. Expansion activities at the ports include dredging of new drafts from the current 12 metres to 16 metres to accommodate large vessels.

According to figures from GPHA, the two seaports handled container capacity worth a total of 894,362 TEUs in 2013 – the Tema port handled 841,989 TEUs while the Takoradi port handled 52,373 TEUs.

By the end of the first quarter of this year, the two ports had handled 214,333 TEUs, which was a 2.7 percent decline over the 2013 figure of 220,436 TEUs within the same period statistics from the Ministry of Transport showed.

Mr. Asare said the review of the existing law will give GPHA more power to regulate business activities at the country's two ports--Tema Port and Takoradi Port--to minimise the cost of doing business, deepen socio-economic improvement and raise the trust and confidence of both transit and transshipment operators doing business through the country's ports.