Parliament commends West Blue
The Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism has pledged its support for West Blue Consulting, a world-class business and IT-consulting firm helping in the implementation of the Ghana National Single Window project.
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According to the committee, the work of West Blue was pivotal in helping the government to achieve its revenue targets at the ports and also create a facilitated trade environment in the country.
Members of the committee made this known in Accra yesterday when they paid a working visit to the West Blue Consulting office in Accra to familiarise themselves with the activities, challenges and future prospects of the company.
Commendation
The Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism, Mr Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover, who led the delegation, commended West Blue for the tremendous work that it was doing for the government to achieve its revenue collection targets.
He said even though there were complaints and criticisms from various quarters when the company started operations in Ghana, it stood resolute and had been able to help improve government 's revenue and reduce the cost and time of doing business at the ports.
Mr Titus-Glover, who is also the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Tema East, assured West Blue of the committee's support towards the achievement of its mandate, urging the company to do more to make trade at the ports easier and quicker.
West Blue Consulting, in partnership with the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), launched the Ghana National Single Window project in 2015.
The project has made impressive inroads by reducing import clearance transactions at the Tema Port and the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) from 14 days to two days, and increasing government's revenue collection at the ports.
As a result of such initiatives, Ghana's ranking has increased in the World Bank Trading Across Border reports from 167 in 2015 to 154 in 2017; and in sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana ranked number one in West Africa and among the Top 10 in sub-Saharan Africa, taking the ninth position out of the 47 countries ranked in the region.
The country also made tremendous improvements in the Global Logistics Performance Index (LPI) ranking, rising 12 places from 100th in 2014 to 88th in 2016 out of 160 countries.
The Chief Executive Officer of West Blue Consulting, Mrs Valentina Mintah, gave an assurance that the company would continue to work with the government and stakeholders to ensure the country enjoyed the full benefits of a facilitated trade environment that would make it easier to transact business in Ghana.
Next quarter activities
Mrs Mintah disclosed that the company would be rolling out a lot of activities in the next quarter which would include training and Go-live of exporter registration for the Ghana Export Promotion Authority; automation of importer registration, as well as exporter registration for the Food and Drugs Authority and automation of a courier process for Ghana Post.
The rest are the setting up of information centres on the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) premises; rollout of national integrated risk management system for Regulatory and Enforcement Agencies; rollout of sea manifest system and automation of customs house agent registration for GRA Customs.
Challenges and solutions
Some of the challenges Mrs Mintah mentioned included under-declaration, wrong description of items, manipulation of shipping documents (bill of lading/ airway bill), wrong origin of goods, misclassification, mis-invoicing and undervaluation.
She called for the enforcement of air and sea manifest submission to PAARS in line with stipulated laws and complete integration between all systems involved in international trade -National Integrated Risk Management System (NIRMS), PAARS, GCMS, eMDA, GICCS, Financial Systems (Swift, Commercial Banking Systems etc.).
She also urged authorities to ensure 100 per cent compliance and frequent financial reporting by the banks on trade transactions; ensure all trade statutory documents were respected and any deviations/changes reported through a single feedback mechanism, to aid identification of defaulting officers or declarants.
Ms Mintah said the government must also enforce penalties and sanctions on deviant entities, while equipping compliant entities, with the continuous improvement of PAARS and capacity building.