Early indications from Authorities at Tema Ports are that the implementation of the paperless clearing system has so far been slow.
The system, which came into operation on September 2 is yet to record any significant impact, according to them.
In a Citi News interview, the General Manager in-charge of Marketing and Corporate Affairs at the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, Esther Gyebi-Donkor noted that the Port Authority has thus provided a customer service centre to assist agents to use the online systems without any difficulty.
“We ensured that all the people who came to the revenue centre to process the old forms were given detailed exposure on how they had to make their request from Monday [today] in the system.”
“A lot of them were very happy with the demonstrations that we did for them. The few questions they had to ask, we were able to deal with it.”
The authorities continued the education by supplying fliers outlining the step by step flow and then “we took the advantage to continue to explain to them what would be expected of them come Monday,” Mrs. Gyebi-Donkor said.
Optimism, however, abounds within freight forwarders, who are anticipating a smooth implementation of the paperless clearing process at the ports should all systems of the various agencies operate seamlessly.
The businesses believe their concerns would be laid to rest if the assurances by the relevant authorities are duly complied with.
The exercise commenced on September 2, 2017 per the directive of the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
The freight forwarders had, among others, lamented the intermittent breakdown of systems in the operations of the clearing institutions such as West Blue, GCNet and the GPHA.
The former clearing system will be rolled out in conjunction with the new paperless system for at least the next few months.
According to authorities, all imports processed prior to the implementation of the paperless regime will be cleared under the former process while new imports will be cleared using the paperless system.
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana