NCA’s absence at airport delays cargo clearance

The inability of the National Communications Authority (NCA) to set up a contact office at the Cargo Village of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) has been cited as one of the factors accounting for delays in the clearance of certain cargo at the port.
The NCA is required by law to certify all imported electronics, including mobile phones before they are allowed into the market.

As a result, its absence at the cargo village meant that officers of the authority would have to shuttle between the head office at Cantonments in Accra and the airport to certify the goods before they could be processed out of the port.

“The NCA doesn’t have an office at the KIA and so when goods come for them to emboss before they can be cleared, it has to take days before their officers are able to come and do that. These things delay the clearance process and end up making things difficult for the shipper,” the Head of Shipper Service Division at the Ghana Shippers’ Authority (GSA), Naa Densua Aryeetey, said.

She made the observation when the governing council of the Shippers Authority paid a familiarisation visit to selected institutions at the cargo village.

The village hosts a number of air-cargo related companies and stakeholders whose duty it is to process cargo arriving into or going out of the country.

The tour was, therefore, aimed at making members of the council appreciate the various activities that are carried out on there to enable them to make suggestions to the Ministry of Transport on the various policies that could be initiated to help ease the associated challenges.

Naa Aryeetey said it was imperative for the NCA, which regulated the local communication industry, to set up an office in the cargo village to, among other things, fast rack the clearance of cargo.

“They can even get a small container where one or two of their men will be to handle the embossment,” she advised.

By Maxwell Adombila Akalaare/Graphic Business/Ghana