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Customs World, a subsidiary of Ports Customs and Free Zones Corporation (PCFC), has announced plans to make initial investments of about $10 million investment into operations to make Ghana’s ports one of the best using state-of-the-art technologies.

The objective is to improve existing systems at the country’s ports and reduce the cost and time of clearing goods under the paperless system.

His Excellency Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the Chairman and CEO of Dubai Ports World and Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zones Corporation, Dubai, who made the disclosure, said they are going to work to ensure the clearing of goods in record time in Ghana.

The company, which took over West Blue Ghana Limited, the company engaged for the provision of the National Single Window and Risk Management System in Ghana, made this known at a press briefing in Accra.

A six-member team from Customs World visited the country last week to meet the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, and other stakeholders, as they prepare to invest in the country.

The delegation was led by His Excellency Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Chairman and CEO of Dubai Port World, and Faisal Eissa Lutfi, CEO of Customs World.

His Excellency Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said: “We believe that the investment we have in the company would be a vehicle to introduce and develop systems that will allow people, logistics and cargo to be able to communicate with each other and ensure final transaction in a record time.

“We are utilising a system that is used and developed in Dubai and are handling millions of documents every year.

“The system would be tailor-made to suit the needs of Ghana, taking into consideration what gaps are there to fill and what additional things we need to do.

“We believe that in this day and age technology is very important and systems and the best system to be employed is very important, and so with that it is going to help cargo, trans-shipment; and it will help link people so that eventually every transaction will move very smoothly, reducing cost of the end users,” he said.

The Sultan praises Akufo-Addo
His Excellency Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem expressed delight for meeting the President Nana Akufo-Addo, stating: “I was very impressed with my meeting with the President; he is very focused and knows what he wants, and he wants to develop Ghana to be a trading hub in the sub region”.

Unique model for Ghana
Adolphe Chaiban, Head of Development, Customs World, stated that “we are going to build a unique model for Ghana that will address Ghana’s challenges at the port”.

He identified gaps in the current operating model of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

“We are going to work to fix all that to make sure that there are no more gaps in the system. We are focused on maximising customers’ satisfaction”, Chaiban said.

Customs World in 40 countries
Customs World, under the Ports Customs Free Zones Corporation, founded DP World, which is currently present in 40 countries and 78 ports around the world, including Australia, United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Korea, Canada, Belgium, Indonesia, Thailand, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, and India.