Isaac Boateng (left) addressing the press flanked by Kenneth Kofi Anim, Chairman of VOGA
Some Ghanaians living abroad have narrated the tortuous ordeals they go through at the country’s ports, especially the Tema habour.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, speaker after speaker took turns to tell journalists about the frustrations they go through when their goods arrive at the harbour.
First was the Executive Board Member of the Voices of Ghanaians Living Abroad (VOGA), Isaac N.K Boateng who doubles as the President of Legends Media Network a non-profit making organization committed to the course of Ghanaians living abroad.
Concerns
He talked of the bureaucratic red tape and general lack of transparency that makes importing an unnecessarily long drawn out confusing process, the exorbitant fees and taxes on goods that are not produced in Ghana due to lack of support for local industry or worse yet goods that are made in Ghana but because of poor energy supply manufacturers are unable to operate properly.
Boateng also complained about the arbitrary and inconsistent valuations that often result in importers hard earned goods being seized to be auctioned off or parceled out amongst government officials and harbour employees and the wanton damage or destruction of personal property without tangible recourse for importers, insisting that corruption and abuses still persist at the Tema habour despite the efforts by the late President Atta-Mills to nip it in the bud.
“When all these factors are combined with an unstable currency, the import business is a hellish affair for Ghanaians both inside and outside Ghana. Small and medium size businesses within Ghana are being crushed in the current economic climate”, he said.
That, he said was slowing down investments in Ghana, asking rhetorically “if we cannot make Ghana a good place for Ghanaians to do business and how can we expect others to invest their money with us?”
“We Ghanaians living abroad would remind both the government of Ghana and our fellow citizens that traveling doesn’t make a person any less Ghanaian. We too are a vital part of Ghana’s economy. We appeal to all stakeholders in both the public and private sector to hear our cries and take a deeper look at what is going on at Tema harbor and do something”, he charged.
Ordeal
Vice Chairman of the group, Samuel Rex Amankwah recounted how cartons of liquid soaps he sent to Ghana through the Tema were stolen by officials that he could not even retrieve one whiles another Ghanaian woman living in Canada narrated how several bags of rice she sent to the country through the same port went missing and could not even get a single grain out of the lot.
One man also recalled how his Honda Pilot was virtually forcefully seized by the port authorities and given to a Minister because they said that was what he wanted until he went screaming his lungs out on radio raising hell.
They have therefore appealed to the government and authorities at the countries ports to streamline things to cut down on some of these bottlenecks which come by way of huge taxes and bureaucratic red tapes.
This, according to Boateng was because “apart from providing much needed goods, and quality products, trade with Ghanaian living abroad provides jobs and brings foreign exchange into the system.”
“However this trust has been shaken”, he noted, and that “the consistent downward spiral of the economy, has had a crippling effect on trade, and along with an unstable currency, it is making it difficult for Ghanaians to do business in their homeland.”
By Charles Takyi-Boadu