Paperless ports - inefficiencies at the Ghanaian ports should be consigned to history

The presidency is waving the flag for change. The “Port Efficiency” revolution has swept through the maritime industry at whirlwind speed over the past few months and players in the industry have to keep pace with time lines drawn or face…

The intention of the government is to facilitate trade. The relevance of trade facilitation stems from the fact that it results in direct benefits to both government and business community.

Some of the benefits to government are: increased effectiveness of control methods; more effective and efficient deployment of resources, high revenue yields; improved trader compliance; accelerated economic development and increased foreign investment.

Benefits

Benefits to traders include: reduced costs and delays; faster custom clearance and release through predictable official intervention; simple commercial framework for doing international and domestic trade and enhanced competition.

Port efficiency gives the port the capabilities of reducing delays in clearing cargo from the port which matches the needs of the customer and the mission of Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA).

Port efficiency had been trumpeted as a major part of GPHA’s strategic plan over the years, but I must concede that in spite of all its benefits, GPHA wasn’t swift enough to establish an e-clearance (paperless) implementation at the Ghanaian Ports.

Again, port efficiency is a crucial aspect of the port’s operation but hinges mainly on the operations of other stakeholders in the port. With the demonstrated commitment of the present government, it is expected that the port will receive the necessary cooperation from other institutions and stakeholders to make up for lost time.

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Adoption of e-solutions

Years earlier, GPHA had already set the ball rolling for a Paperless Port. In a major departure from the previous reliance on the use of paper based documentation, GPHA adopted e-Solutions for the booking of berths online, (e-vessel Booking), e-gate System, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 geared to improving management processes and the acquisition of the Jade Master Terminal which is a Terminal Operating System to be interfaced with the Port Community System and the systems of other major Stakeholders in the Maritime Industry.

The E-Booking was launched at the end of 2015, awareness created and implantation started in 2016. Part of the e-Gate System (e-ID Cards and Biometric Identification Systems) for the entry of port users is in use.

It is not just about talk and test anymore, it’s very much about action. Maybe what happened was that we were not fast enough or we did not have enough legal backing as a Port Authority to change the paper operation and other delayed processes of Stakeholders who operate in the Port.

There is excitement in the maritime industry especially at GPHA that, having the involvement of the Presidency (Playing the lead role) in the Port Efficiency Crusade will provide the needed results.

All of a sudden there is a display of a perfect collaboration and coordination among the Stakeholders, all avoiding the “blame game” that we used to witness. The respective stakeholders are currently poised to maximize the new developments around us for the realization of the “Port Efficiency” agenda.

Veep’s enthusiansm

With the enthusiasm demonstrated by the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the only immediate challenge that I can foresee when the Port Clearance is fully automated is system failures slowing down the process and causing delays. The e-Solution providers’ system down time will cause delays in lodging of Entries, electronic payments and general processing. What will be the plan “B” when the systems are down? Paper or no paper?

The poor performance of a Port and container terminal can also be partly due to lack of investment in infrastructural development, equipment and workforce. From the infrastructural development point of view, GPHA has got tonnes of it to show.

The fact that GPHA is solely responsible for the provision of both infrastructure and superstructure, GPHA has systematically recorded progress in the provision of port infrastructure and superstructure (berths, quays, jetty, gantry cranes, harbour mobile cranes and other facilities and equipment,) in the bid to make our ports efficient over the years.

How easy is it to convince other stakeholders to do what is good for the customer when they operate based on their individual laws and are autonomous?

The Presidency’s paperless and joint inspection directives and the subsequent road map (full automation) which started on September 1, 2017, will be the most significant step towards ensuring port efficiency in the ports of Ghana but that will not be all.

The question is should we wait for further directives from the presidency? No!

All stakeholders in the industry should review their processes and make it efficient as part of the change. Various stakeholders would have to pay attention to other issues that affect port efficiency apart from a paperless port and joint inspections.

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Conclusion

Unsatisfactory services and many organisation’s inability to respond quickly enough to an ever changing port customer needs is for the government and the general public an unsatisfactory status quo.

It is believed that the industry is overly inward-looking and ripe for change for that matter, drastic action is necessary.

The three directives given to the Port Community to accomplish by September 1, 2017 by the Vice President, is just the beginning of a series of moves by the government to make the Country’s ports more attractive to port users.

This has been difficult in the past because we have multiple agencies currently handling several parts of cargo flow instead of having one agency managing all the processes to give coordination and focus.

Given the current weak legal backing/support for GPHA as the body who should spearhead the implementation of initiatives, one can only say that the Presidency’s intervention and enthusiasm is timely and welcoming.

In future the legal issues must be addressed to give authority to the appropriate institution to efficiently manage the Ports of Ghana without the Vice Presidents’ intervention.

The writer is the General Manager Corporate Affairs and Marketing of GPHA