By King Amoah
A prominent Ghanaian businessman in Accra Nana Yaw Nsiah, has lauded President John Dramani Mahama’s Reset Agenda policy for its positive impact on the business communities, particularly on the importers who struggle with their operational challenges.
However Nana Nsiah is now urging the government to extend this transformative policy to encompass the activities at the country’s ports and the operations of the shipping lines which he indicated are undermining the initiatives aimed at revitalizing the economy.
Nana Yaw Nsiah who is the Managing Director of Nsiah Automobile Company Ltd and the 2nd Deputy President of the Vehicles and Assets Dealers Union of Ghana believes that the Reset Agenda has been instrumental in stabilizing the Ghanaian cedi.
It has also enabled the Minister of Finance to remove the burdensome taxes like the Covid -19 and E- Levy, Nsiah noted.
Speaking to the Correspondent in an interview in Kumasi over the weekend Nana Yaw Nsiah highlighted how these changes have allowed many businesses to operate smoothly, a stark contrast to the past where excessive taxations eroded profits.
The Reset Agenda has truly brought the much needed relief to the Automobile importers, Nsiah stated.
He reiterated that for a long time the Automobile importers were struggling under heavy load of taxes that made it almost impossible to make any profit.
President Mahama’s efforts to revive the business sector deserves commendation he pointed out.
The Director of Nsiah Automobile Company Ltd observed that despite this positive outlook, he is now drawing attention to a critical bottlenecks that continue to plague the import sector citing the practices of the Shipping lines operating at the country’s harbours.
Nana Yaw Nsiah alleged that these entities are operating with impunity and are effectively undermining the government’s efforts to foster a conducive business environment.
While importers are thankful for the removal of harsh taxation on imported goods the situation at the harbours is a different story, Nsiah revealed.
He said the Shipping lines appear to have taken the laws into their own hands by frustrating the importers efforts to clear their goods efficiently from the harbours.
According to Nana Nsiah automobile importers are compelled to settle their import duties and other associated harbour expenses in advance to facilitate fast clearance.
Nana Yaw Nsiah claimed that after fulfilling these financial obligations the Shipping lines deliberately fail to notify the importers about the arrivals of vessel via convenient channels like email or text messages.
This alleged deliberate lack of communication he explained, means that by the time we learn of our goods arrival the window for immediate clearance has passed.
This then leads to exorbitant demurrage penalties charged by the Shipping lines. and when an importer fails to pay his goods face confiscation by the state.
Nsiah emphasized that importers are aware of the potential congestion at the harbours and expect prompt notification upon their goods arrival
He lamented that without such timely alerts businesses are left vulnerable.
He further stated that navigating these delays often requires to rely on the influence of a well connected individuals, or else the cumulative impact of these shipping line practices could lead to the collapse of businesses while the shipping lines continue to operate unhindered.
Adding to the import challenges, Nana Yaw Nsiah described the current exchange rate practices of the Shipping lines as unfortunate.
He stated that the Shipping lines have refused to adhere to the Central Bank’s (Bank of Ghana) exchange rates citing an alleged shortage of US dollars for business transactions in the country.
With such assertions from the Shipping lines the Automobile dealers have engaged in series of stakeholders meetings with the Ghana Shippers Authority and even high ranking government officials including Professor Ransford Gyampo the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Shippers Authority himself to address the chargeable rates of goods among others with the Shipping lines.
Yet no fruitful resolution has emerged Nsiah hinted.
He further pointed out that the forex bureaus that the Shipping lines recommended for the importers to do business on their behalf also operate with different terms.
This make us to believe that the Shipping lines are directly siphoning off the little profits that we get into their coffers .
Nana Nsiah therefore implores the government to extend the Reset Agenda to the country’s harbours.
- He believes that the implementation of the similar policies and oversight at the ports and for Shipping lines are important to ensure smooth business operations and allow the positive impact on President John Dramani Mahama’s administration to be fully realizedfor extended Reset Agenda
