Transit trade stakeholders call for Standard Operating Procedure

Members of the Greater Accra Transit Shipper Committee have called for the implementation of a revised Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) under the transit trade regime to ensure uniformity in the operations of all stakeholders for trade facilitation.

 The existing procedures that have guided the processing of transit cargo within the port have been in place for some 12 years but some policy interventions like thePaperless Port System among others have impacted the transit cargo processing.

At its third-quarter meeting of the year 2018, a sub-committee made up of representatives from the GRA-Customs Division, Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Ghana Shippers’ Authority (GSA), GCNet, State Insurance Company (SIC), National Security and Freight Forwarders was formed and tasked to undertake acomprehensive review of the SOP to meet the current demands of the industry.

Presenting its
report at the fourth quarter meeting of the Greater Accra Transit Shipper
Committee on 6^th December, 2018 at the Ghana Shippers’ House in
Accra, the sub-committee submitted the revised transit flow process for
containerised, bulk and vehicle consignments.

The report also recommended amongst other things the need for inter-agency cooperation on haulage vehicle registration, optimum tracking devices of transit containers to meet demand and an integrated approach to bar businesses with history of diversion fromtransacting business at the ports.

The meeting discussed challenges associated with weighing goods, such as inconsistent axle load readings, at the weigh bridges alongGhana’s corridor manned by officials of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA). Themeeting resolved to contact designated agencies at the centre of the challengesto address the concerns of transit shippers.

The TransitShipper Committee is a platform created by the GSA to assist in facilitatingtrade between Ghana and its landlocked neighbouring countries of Burkina Faso,Mali and Niger.