Port expansion to increase revenue — GPHA
The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), is optimistic that the ongoing expansion of the two seaports of the country will help make the ports more competitive to keep pace with global trends in the international port business.
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The acting General Manager in charge of Business Development at the GPHA, Mr Samuel Ntow-Kummi, explained that the massive investment in technology at the ports and the training of staff would help to achieve higher productivity.
“We are investing in infrastructure, we are investing in people, we are investing in technology and we are also investing in improving our business processes to make our ports competitive,” he said.
Mr Ntow-Kummi stated that African ports were going through evolution and one of the effects was that multinationals were investing in the ports and therefore taking over from indigenous port operators.
This, he described as a strategic threat and called on African governments to formulate policies to encourage local participation in the port industry.
“If you understand that trade is the lifeline of economic development and this lifeline is being taken over by foreign multinationals, we need to be worried. So my advice is that governments should devise policies to address the anomaly,” he said.
Mr Ntow-Kummi stressed the need for the port community comprising terminal operators, stevedores, shipping lines, freight forwarders and other regulators to work together to improve on their service delivery.
“We need to collaborate, we need to share information and we also need to at each individual level improve upon on our own processes,” he added.
Automate processes at the ports
The Secretary General of the Port Association of West and Central Africa, Mr Michael Luguje, called on ports in the West African sub region to automate their processes and ensure optimum utilisation of all equipment to ensure high productivity.
“We need to look at automation like we have seen in some presentations but not just going 100 per cent automation. We should have a balancing platform where we are automating at the same time, building the human capacity to be able to accompany that automation so that we will be able to get the desired outcome,” he said.
He urged port authorities to provide sufficient port facilities in addition to lobbying government to ensure that hinterland connections to warehouses of customers were accessible and not congested.
“The port authority’s responsibility is not just the waterfront and the land within the port area but also the hinterland connection. So I think any work that the port authority is doing is to ensure that facilities are available, personnel are equipped and trained enough to be able to provide the best of services and that the local communities,” he said. — GB