High port charges turn away shippers - CILT-Ghana

The President of the Chattered Institute of Logistics and Transport, CILT-Ghana, Mr Ebo Hammond has urged government to consider reviewing the high import taxes being imposed at the ports as means of revenue generation and rather focus on internally generating revenue.

According to him although efforts including paperless operations at the port, removal of all physical unauthorized road barriers are helping the country to generate revenue, too much emphasis on port charges will not help improve the country's global logistic challenges and offer smooth trade and boost logistic index.

He said this at CILT-Ghana seminar and AGM in Accra under the theme “Logistics and Transport: A Catalyst for National Development.”

According to him, CILT-Ghana is enthused at plans government is outing in place to ease trade facilitation at the port, but recommended that a government must find the right balance between trade facilitation and revenue collection.

He mentioned also that though there has been progress in the review of the paperless ports system which is one of the key logistics efficiency improvements, after almost one year of implementation reveals some challenges such as too much emphasis on revenue collection vis-à-vis trade facilitation.

“Extremely high port charges may turn away shippers to competitive neighbouring ports leading to reduced revenues despite trade facilitation as all ports are also improving their systems. The converse is also true. CILT therefore recommends the government needs to find the right balance between trade facilitation and revenue mobilization, in order to reap the maximum benefits of the newly introduced system in the long run.”

He indicated that the development of the country is at the heart of CILT-Ghana just as it is at the hearts of government but that the generation of revenue must be done in such a manner that will not scare away investment flows.

He said, over the years, the CILT Ghana has strived to provide cutting-edge professional education through its Certificate, Diploma and Advanced Diploma programmes in Logistics and Transport at its eleven accredited training institutions in Ghana and 1 in Togo.

The CPD programmes, he said are designed to provide relevant and in-depth practical field knowledge. It is our hope that you will benefit immensely from this CPD.

“There is the need for the country to develop its logistics systems compete favourably on the international stage. We therefore need to think globally and act locally. CILT Ghana appreciates and commends the bold decisions of the government with the implementation of the paperless ports system and virtually eliminating all physical road barriers leaving only ECOWAS approved ones.

"A recent monitoring by the Borderless Alliance reveal that customs checkpoints which were nine (9) in 2015 has reduced to two (2) as at November 2017 (about 80% reduction). Improving national logistics and transport systems helps a great deal in positioning the country face any global competitive challenges. CILT Ghana is of the view that these bold steps may help facilitate smooth trade and also hopefully impact on our future Logistics Performance Index (LPI) which enhances the competitive edge of the country.”

Mr. Ebo Hammond said, the ports are the entry points of businesses and that in as much as government wants more investment flows into the country, it must consider reviewing taxes at these places so as to make business attractive to importers and international economic movers to come to Ghana for trade purposes.

He also touched on road crashes and called for effective training and education for drivers.

Commenting on the increasing rate of road accidents in the country, Mr. Ebo Hammond said that recent National Road Safety Commission’s (NRSC) report for the first quarter of 2016, January to March, makes grim reading with 508 people reportedly killed while using the roads in one way or the other representing 22% increase on last year’s figures: 395 people were reported killed on the roads in the first quarter of 2015.

“Recent statistics released by the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) shows a total of 20, 444 vehicles were involved in road traffic crashes; resulting in 2,076 deaths in 2017. This figure indicates a marginal reduction by eight (8) persons less than that of 2016 figure of 2,084. Out of the 2076 deaths, Seventy-five percent (75%; 1,562 persons) of these deaths were males, with the rest involving females; which may have a grave social impact as majority of the fatalities are the working force of the country" he said.

He averred that Accra continues to lead in both the number of motor vehicle accidents (8893; 43.4%) and pedestrian deaths (238; 27%) which may be a reflection of the high levels of ‘vehiculation’, population density and inadequate road user segregation of the city. An analysis of the case fatality per 10,000 people shows the probability of a 0.72 person dying from an accident in the country.

“The good news is that the deaths per day was 5.67 deaths which represents a 5.81% decrease and an improvement of 2016 figure of 6.04 deaths.”

He bemoaned the fact that 2,903 cases were documented, including 2,687 persons injured, involving 4,569 vehicles. The records also indicated that a total of 696 pedestrians were knocked down by vehicles.

Ghana, as a developing country, he said has a relatively high rate of road deaths and that it is the view of many road safety adherents that these deaths are due in part to poorly designed and hastily constructed roads, excessive speeds by undisciplined drivers and inadequate vehicle maintenance.

Mr. Ebo Hammond however refused to state bad roads as cause of these road crashes but mentioned that the country’s road infrastructure has been very good in recent times but road crashes continue to increase at fast pace. He said: “The driver’s attitude and behaviour during the journey plays critical role in the safety of road users.”

He also mentioned that driver’s personality disposition such as sensation-seeking, impulsiveness, aggression-hostility and social deviancy, among others, correlates with driving behaviour and risk taking tendencies and subsequent crash involvement.

He called on driver recruitment agencies and corporate institutions to do well by themselves if they employed psychometric profiling techniques to assess potential drivers prior to engagement.

These tools, he said would ascertain the risk index of driver prospects in order to put in place appropriate training mechanisms to ameliorate the negative temperament and attendant consequences.

The Seminar forms part of CILT Ghana’s Continuing Professional Development programmes aimed at updating the knowledge and skills of members and non-members on current Supply Chain, Logistics and Transport development.

Participants took the opportunity to explore the key global and national issues and challenges for the shipper along the Supply Chain, explore and examine future trends in the maritime sector, discuss opportunities for the Ghanaian Shipper and strategies for harnessing them and identify and understand the latent and major causes of road accidents and their impact.

They evaluate our Road Traffic Laws and Regulations, Implementation and Enforcement and Driver Attitudes and recommended solutions were made to curb and reduce the carnage on the roads.