The Ghana Shippers Authority in collaboration with stakeholders in the paperless port project at Ghana’s ports like the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, Customs Division of GRA and other service providers, have embarked on a sensitization program for stakeholders in Suame-Magazine on the seaport clearance processes.

At the forum, stakeholders, predominantly spare parts dealers were given a detailed account of the paperless process since its commencement on 1st September, its achievements and challenges.

Most importantly, they were educated on the changes made to clearance procedures at the ports and how they had to adjust their methods to ensure higher efficiency in their best interest.

Principal Marketing and Public Affairs Officer of GPHA, Nana Esi Soderberg averred that the paperless process has lessened the burden on importers and their agents in the clearance of their goods.

“The impact is that it has speeded up the time of clearance, so far as the importers have their documentation and everything correctly given to their agents, it has made it quicker. It has taken out the transport cost of having to move to and from Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority. So there is less cost and quicker clearance time”, she explained.

Baffour Ofori-Atta Kena, Senior Freight and Logistics Officer at the Ghana Shippers Authority said the forum is geared towards empowering importers in the hinterlands so they don’t concede to unnecessary harassment that would hamper the transportation of their goods after clearance at the ports.

He said the Ghana Shippers Authority will continue to sensitise importers so as to resolve the challenges they go through in the course of transacting their businesses.

“We are fine tuning the paperless system as the time rolls on. The paperless system has come to stay and we should all support it so that Ghana would not be left behind. Other countries like Benin have already been doing paperless so this is the ideal time for us to embrace and make sure the system works”, he charged.

At the forum, some stakeholders interacted with the officers about some of the concerns, as well as suggestions with the aim of facilitating their businesses in the light of the paperless system.