UNIPASS a 'masterstroke' of Akufo-Addo – Chamber of Freight and Trade

The President of the Chamber of Freight and Trade (CFT), Dennis Amfo-Sefah, says the decision to award the 10-year port contract to UNIPASS is a “masterstroke” of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

“Government is simply rolling out a single window platform by making UNIPASS takeover the duplicitous services being provided by CTN-Ghana, West Blue and the Ghana Community Network (GC-Net). All the government is doing is instituting a sole service provider for trade facilitation at the ports.” Mr. Amfo-Sefah said in a statement.

“Gone are the days when we had ASYCUDA (Automated Systems for Customs Data Collection) which came with a lot of paper trade and export documentations,” he added.

Tracing the antecedence of Ghana’s port management system, he said Customs first moved to the first generation of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) introduced by GC -Net.

This, Mr Amfo-Sefah added helped relief port managers from the conundrum of rationalising documentation.

“The second generation of the electronic data interchange system which we are currently running is a web-based platform which has come a long way to help trade facilitation. Over the years, government has tried to introduce new technologies; that is IT, into the country’s clearance system. That is why we currently have three vendors providing almost the same service to the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), GC-Net, West Blue and CTN,” Mr. Amfo-Sefah said.

The Chamber of Freight and Trade President explained that the government’s introduction of UNIPASS, therefore, is a masterstroke that eliminates all sorts of anachronistic paperwork at the port.

“The government in its own wisdom thinks that the time has come to introduce a single vendor to unify all activities and services that are provided by all these three vendors onto one single system hence the introduction of UNIPASS”. Mr. Amfo-Sefah emphasised.

UNIPASS, which has Ghana Link Network Services as its local partner, was in March 2018 awarded $40 million 10-year window contract to provide paperless services at the port. The contract since then has remained a subject of controversy but according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI), the introduction of UNIPASS is expected to make the Ghana National Single Window (GNSW) more comprehensive.

In addition, the UNIPASS system will include a clearance management system, a cargo management system, an information management system and an administration system.

CUPIA Korea, which is assisting the Customs Division to implement the UNIPASS system has described it as an enhanced single window system for trade facilitation.