Enhancing Ease of Doing Business At Ghana's Ports

By David Adadevoh

GHANA is making strides in its quest to reduce the cost of doing business at the ports as over 10,000 importers have downloaded the newly introduced Ghana Trade Hub Mobile App. The software application, known as the Ghana Trade Hub Mobile App, developed by West Blue Consulting, an Information Technology company in collaboration with the Ghana Revenue Authority serves as a one-stop- shop for all trade information exchange and clearance processes.

This Mobile App initiative also forms part of the paperless port reform in transforming Ghana's ports to Smart Ports. Mr Hector Obideaba, a Revenue Assistant Class one, at the Customs Technical Services Bureau at the Customs Division of GRA, speaking at a stakeholder engagement on the new Ghana Trade Hub Portal, said since the launch, over 50,000 importers, exporters have visited the portal.

The portal is the hub that provides information and tools relating to the trade chain including exports, transit and imports in the country. He said there have been an enhancement to the application to make it user-friendly and it now has a classic and modern view. He said the self-explanatory and easy to follow App, once downloaded has the duty calculator and the consignment tracking.

He said it makes it very easy and simple for importers to track the status, movement and location of their expected consignment, be they general goods or vehicles and also to have fore knowledge of the amount of duties that would be charged on such imports before clearance.

He said stakeholders within the trade and imports sector could now check such information in the comfort of their homes or from anywhere in the world, without having to be physically present at the port. He said the Mobile App initiative also formed part of the paperless port reform of transforming Ghana's ports to smart ports.

The Revenue Officer said another advantage of the Mobile App was that it enhances transparency and reduces human influence and interference; a challenge that had hitherto been abused to cause leakage in government revenue at the ports. He said the free-to-download Mobile App was available on both Google Play store for Android users and on IOS- App store.

"The Ghana Trade Hub Mobile App is easy to operate and the processes have been broken down into specifics, depending on whether one wants trade information on general goods, used vehicles or whether one simply wants to tract a consignment," he added.

Mr Obideaba said for users, who wish to track their consignment, there were four simple steps, which were to open the Ghana Trade Hub Mobile App, click on 'Track Consignment' and then sign up with Tax Identification Number (TIN), email, phone number and passcode or login with TIN, email and passcode as the first three steps.

He said the home page displayed all Unique Consignment Reference (UCR's) generated in the current month from, which users could track a consignment by selecting a UCR.

"The home page also displays a search section, where you can select year and month to view UCR's of that year and month from, which you can track a consignment by selecting a UCR," he added. He said users can also track consignment by selecting 'Search' by UCR and then insert a UCR and press submit to track that consignment and the results of the search display a timeline of the selected UCR with the duty payable of that consignment.

Mr Kwasi Bobie-Ansah, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of Communication and Public Affairs, called on the media to help explain how effective the new App was relevant to importers and how it worked. He urged the public to register for their tax identification numbers to enable them to access the App adding that the GRA was available to explain the use of the App and the upgraded Trade Hub Portable to the public.

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