Uneasy calm at Tema Port over Amaris deal
There is uneasy calm among players in the export trade business at the port over the operations of Amaris Terminal Limited as the sole authorised service provider for the scanning and pre-examination of export consignments at the port.
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While some contend that the operations of Amaris as the sole authorised service provider will amount to delays and, therefore, cost the country about US$1.12 million per a day, others say Amaris will provide one of the world-class services needed to promote the Tema Port to the international market.
Amaris Terminal is a public private partnership between the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) and Jospong Group of Companies. The GPHA, since last year, has directed Amaris to become the sole authorised service provider for the scanning and pre-examination of export consignments at the port.
Although the directive has not been enforced, such development at the port has brought misunderstanding between the authorities and players in the export trade on a number of occasions.
In an interview with the GRAPHIC BUSINESS on Thursday (April 28, 2017) in Accra, the Director of Research of the Centre for Transport Security Dialogue, Mr Simeon Ankomah Gyewu, said the directive would bring unfair monopoly as well as make other terminals lose their market.
“The GPHA-Amaris terminal deal is an attempt to create near monopoly, making the other terminals lose market, creating unemployment and taking competition out of export terminal operations at the port of Tema,” he said.
The director observed that such agreement between the GPHA and Amaris in operations would duplicate the cost of operations for exporters and could also divert export traffic through the country’s ports and undermine government’s quest to improve exports in Ghana.
He said a preliminary assessment made by the centre showed that the services of Amaris would amount to delays and would, therefore, cost the country about US$1.12 million per a day.
The letter
The letter, dated August 11, 2016, and signed by the immediate-past Director-General of the GPHA, stated that “all loaded export containers, apart from exempted export containers (EECs) intended for shipment at Tema Port (MPS or Terminal One) shall first be scanned or pre-examined, as may be directed by the Ghana Customs, at Amaris Terminals before delivery to any of the port terminals.”
By this arrangement, the exporter will first have to scan and weigh his or her consignment at Amaris Terminal before moving the cargo to final container destination, where applicable handling charges will still apply.
But the CETSED is questioning why the ports operator, GPHA, which is supposed to supervise the export trade activities, should partner an export consolidator at the expense of other firms engaged in similar business.
Mr Gyewu said the centre could not understand why GPHA, which is the regulator of a specific business, will be a key partner to a company that was into the very business that it was regulating.
“CETSED argues further that the GPHA-Amaris Terminal deal does not provide the level playing ground for all export terminal operators within the port community” he said.
Disagreement
But, the Executive Secretary of the Exporters and Importers Association of Ghana, Mr Sampson Awingobit Asaaki, disagreed with the assertions made by the centre, explaining that appointing Amaris Terminal as the sole authorised service provider would not create monopoly.
He said although the directive had been on hold for some time, the association was of the view that such a system would help the security agencies to properly scrutinise every export consignment before being exported.
“The service provided by Amaris is presently one of the best the country has because you will get access to 24 hour security to ensure that any person can not put foreign materials into a consignment which is being exported to other countries,” he indicated.
Mr Asaaki said Amaris state of the art facilities were unmatched within the industry, providing services in the area of container storage and handling, container repairs and maintenance, container sales and leasing, trucking, warehousing, stuffing of export cargo and container scanning of all containers.
He expressed the resolve of the association to support all security agencies in their quest to combat activities of exporters that dent the image of the country on the international market.