Single Window to automate customs operations at Tema Port
The Joint Implementation Team of the Ghana National Single Window (GNSW) is set to roll out a new automation system which will entirely eliminate the use of paper in customs transactions.
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The prioritised paperless system will allow the trading community to access service anywhere using any electronic device.
The introduction of the new system follows the identification of bottlenecks and leakages in the existing operating system which were also said to be unduly delaying business time.
“We are in the process of rolling out the new automation activities and the trading community should soon start realising value,” a member of the implementation committee, Ms Valentina Mintah, told the Daily Graphic in an interview last Thursday when she paid a courtesy call on the acting Director-General of the Ghana Ports and Habours Authority (GPHA), Mr Paul Ansah Asare.
She explained that the country, in seeking to significantly improve its rankings on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business rankings, ought to ensure the elimination of inefficiencies in the customs processes.
Resistance from the various technical service providers to integrate systems and share data in a timely manner due to perceived taking over of their job is affecting the progress being made with the national single window’s implementation.
Stakeholders have called for the need for the government to look at enforcing industry data models and system integration services across all information technology (IT) service providers so as to facilitate the sharing of government data across systems.
Trade flows
Ms Mintah said the adoption of right approach towards the elimination of bureaucratic processes would significantly improve trade flows.
“The goal to promote the free flow of information and increase transparency in customs processes requires the need for all stakeholders to properly understand the methods and processes of the national single window,” she said.
She expressed the hope that the new paperless procedure being introduced would address the challenges and help improve performance.
The General Manager in charge of Business Development at the GPHA, Mr Samuel Ntow Kumi, commended the partners for the new strategies being deployed to make business cost effective in the country.
While lauding the standardising format on the manifest to meet the requirement of all stakeholders, Mr Kumi assured that the GPHA would continue to make the country’s ports attractive in trade facilitation within the West African sub-region.
