Kumasi, May 27, GNA - A chartered shipbroker has called on the Shipping and Navigation Division of the Ministry of Ports, Harbours and Railways to advise government to set up a national shipping line to replace the defunct Black Star Line, since the division has a crop of shipping experts.

Nana Opoku Agyeman III, regretted that the shipping experts who advised the previous government to dispose of the vessels and other assets of the Black Star Line, have done a great disservice to the nation.

Making the call through the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi on Wednesday, Nana Agyeman, a director of Bright Star Shipping Company, said the advisors should have asked the government to charter out the seaworthy vessels to competent companies to operate.

This way, he pointed out, the state would be generating revenue and at the same time retain the vessels for the nation to take over after a competent local management had been put in place. Nana Agyeman said what was worse was that, proceeds from the sale of the vessels had not been accounted for and the public had not been told how much they were sold for.

"These unsavoury actions have created huge unemployment in the country after the nation has spent a lot of money to train these sea-going personnel".

He said at the moment there were over 1,000 officers and ratings unemployed and therefore appealed to the government to institute a probe into the sale of these assets.