Ghana risks losing import trade to Abidjan – IEAG

Ghana risks losing significant portions of its import trade to competing ports in the sub-region if urgent measures are not taken to resolve persistent congestion and delays at its ports, the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana (IEAG) has warned.

The association said it was already receiving indications that some importers were exploring routing their cargo through the Port of Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire due to delays and uncertainties in clearing cargo through Ghana’s ports.

Samson Asaki Awingobit, Executive Secretary of the IEAG, speaking at a press conference in Accra on Monday, stated that the development should be a major concern to government because once an importer established a reliable alternative supply chain through another regional gateway, winning back that business could become extremely difficult.

“Cargo diversion is not easily reversible,” Mr Awingobit said. “Once an importer builds a relationship with another port—new clearing agents, new shipping lines, new logistics arrangements—the decision becomes structural, not temporary.”

Peak Season Fears

He said the current bottlenecks could worsen as the country approached the December peak trading period, warning that delays could result in substantial increases in cargo dwell time, storage and demurrage liabilities, truck queues and operational expenses.

The IEAG indicated that the challenges were not limited to physical congestion of containers but extended to a national trade competitiveness issue.

It said disruptions within the port ecosystem—including cargo clearance, valuation, shipping-line operations, terminal operations, documentation, transportation and regulatory processes—had direct implications for the cost and efficiency of doing business in Ghana.

It called for immediate and decisive government intervention to restore efficiency and predictability at the ports.

“Ghana cannot pursue an ambitious trade and industrialisation agenda while its ports become increasingly expensive, unpredictable and time-consuming for importers,” the association said.

Red Channel Concerns

The association also expressed concerns over what it described as excessive routing of containers for physical and intrusive examination, saying the practice was contributing to congestion at the country’s ports.

According to the association, its preliminary information indicated that approximately 74 per cent of containers undergoing scanning were being routed to the red channel for physical or intrusive examination.

It, however, stressed that the figure required independent verification and called for an immediate data-driven review of Customs’ selectivity and risk-management parameters.

The review, it said, should examine the percentages of green, yellow, and red consignments, and the proportion of red-routed containers that subsequently resulted in discrepancies, revenue recovery, or enforcement action.

It said it recognised Customs’ responsibility to protect state revenue and prevent smuggling, under-valuation, misclassification and other customs offences, noting, however, that a risk-management system that routinely channelled an exceptionally high proportion of cargo into intrusive examination could become a congestion-generating mechanism rather than a trade-facilitation mechanism.

Coordinated Inspections

The IEAG also raised concerns about the apparent breakdown in coordinated inspections involving Customs and other regulatory agencies.

It said that when several agencies had a legitimate regulatory interest in the same container, their interventions should be coordinated and carried out within a clearly defined inspection window.

It further cited regulatory fees and charges, as well as long truck turnaround times, as other contributors to congestion, calling for an urgent government-led review of port-related regulatory fees and charges, particularly those recently increased.

The IEAG also urged the authorities to examine the end-to-end cargo evacuation cycle, from vessel discharge and terminal handling through customs clearance, examination, truck appointment, loading and exit.

It said the objective should be to reduce unnecessary delays and improve the efficiency of cargo evacuation.

Background: A Port Under Pressure

Ghana’s ports, particularly the Tema Port and Takoradi Port, have faced recurring congestion challenges in recent years. The Tema Port, which handles about 85% of Ghana’s international trade, has seen cargo dwell times increase significantly since 2024, with average clearance times for containerised cargo rising from about seven days to more than 14 days in some cases.

The congestion has been attributed to a combination of factors, including increased import volumes following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, delays in customs valuation and classification, inadequate scanning capacity, and inefficiencies in the cargo evacuation chain.

The Port of Abidjan, managed by the Ivorian Ports Authority and operated under a concession agreement with Bolloré Africa Logistics (now Africa Global Logistics), has invested heavily in modernising its infrastructure in recent years. The port completed a major expansion in 2023, including a new container terminal with a capacity of 1.5 million TEUs annually, and has positioned itself as a competitive alternative for landlocked Sahelian countries and coastal importers.

The IEAG has previously raised concerns about the competitiveness of Ghana’s ports. In 2023, the association warned that the introduction of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) and the paperless port system, while well-intentioned, had introduced new inefficiencies that were driving up the cost of doing business.

The association has consistently called for a balance between trade facilitation and revenue protection, arguing that excessive scrutiny of compliant traders undermines Ghana’s position as a trade hub in West Africa.

Ghana’s port sector is also facing broader challenges, including competition from the Lomé Port in Togo, which has invested in deep-water capacity and positioned itself as a transshipment hub, and the ongoing expansion of the Abidjan port.

The government has announced plans to expand and modernise the Tema Port, including the construction of new container terminals and the upgrade of scanning and inspection facilities, but these projects are expected to take several years to complete.