The inadequate electronic cargo tracking devices at the Tema Port for the monitoring of the movement of trucks to intended destinations is creating congestion at the port.
Per the security requirement at the Tema Port, cargo trucks have to be fixed with cargo electronic tracking devices before they could leave the port.
The essence of the electronic tracking device, being operated by the Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is meant to control diversion of goods, which is resulting in the state losing revenue.
Some local and foreign cargo drivers at the Tema Port, who spoke to The Ghanaian Times said, because the cargo tracking devices were woefully inadequate, they had to wait for several weeks before their trucks could be fitted with the device to enable them move out of the Tema Port.
According to the cargo drivers, the delay at the Tema Port was impacting negatively on their businesses and making them lose huge sums of revenue and, called for investigations into the “preferential treatment being given to some of the drivers by the authorities of the Customs Division of GRA.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah and Minister of Transport, Fiifi Kwetey visited the Tema Port at the weekend to assess the situation.
Addressing the leaders of the two groups, the minister assured that government would procure electronic tracking device for the Customs Division of the GRA to address the problem.
Speaking in an interview with The Ghanaian Times, the leaders of the two groups, Dianda Sayouba, who is a representative of the Burkina Faso Transport Unions in Ghana and Abdulai Baba, Chairman of the Ghana Haulage Transport Drivers Association were of the opinion that dealing with them as leaders was the ideal thing to do under the circumstances because they were well informed about the state of affairs and concerns of their members.
In their opinion, leaving their individual members to speak could have further marred the relationship between both groups and that the inadequate electronic tracking devices should be addressed as a matter of urgency to ease congestion at the port.
Mr. Sayouba was happy about the visit by the Ministers and optimistic that their concerns would be swiftly dealt with.
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