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 GHANA PORTS & HARBOURS AUTHORITY (GPHA)
Interview with
K. D. Boateng,
Acting Director General
September 3rd 1999
Contact:
P.O.Box 150 – TEMA - GHANA
Tel: (233 22)
Fax: (233 22)
E-mail: gpha@ghana.com
Web-site: www.ghanaports.com
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Ghana Ports and Harbours was established in June, 1986. Could you give us a brief historical background to the GPHA?
As you rightly said it was established in 1986 as a result of a merger of 3 companies; the Ghana Port Authority, which was a fully owned government company, the Ghana Cargo Handling Company, and the Takoradi Lighterage Company Limited. These 3 companies came together under PNDC Law 160 to form the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority. That was at a time when the government. was contracting loans and grants for the port rehabilitation. It was financed by the World Bank, the European Union, the OECF from Japan, the Saudi Fund and the Ghana government. It was almost a condition at the time to come together to strengthen the management and the whole organization of the port because we were working at cross purposes so that we could achieve the objectives of the loan and the project.
What exactly are the responsibilities and the role of this new organization?
The new organization has the responsibility to operate and maintain the ports of Ghana and to develop maritime ports for Ghana. It is responsible for the operation and management, as well as safety and environmental issues of the maritime ports of Ghana.
Since these 3 companies came together has the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority as one entity been more efficient than the 3 companies were before? Has it made a big difference?
It has made a lot of difference. Until now the Takoradi Lightrage Company was having a lot of financial problems, as was the Ghana Ports Authority. The Cargo Handling Company was in a better financial position. However, it did not have the responsibility to maintain the ports’ infrastructure and was therefore not in the position to make resources available for infrastructural development. Meanwhile Ghana Port Authority was rather constrained financially from providing the infrastructure needed for the ports’ operations. With the formation of the GPHA our financial position as well as our operational efficiency have improved tremendously over the years. Hitherto, the Cargo Handling Company, being responsible for cargo handling in the port could engage in certain things, which were difficult for the port authority to control. For example, when damage occurred to the infrastuctural facility in the port, a report might not even be filed even though someone had to take responsibility for the damage. Now that we are together we know that it is the responsibility of everyone to take care of it.
At the moment Ghana is seen as the Gateway to Africa. What role is the GPHA playing to ensure that this really becomes the case?
GPHA is actually a part of the Gateway Program. It is one of the strategies for the attainment of the goals of the Vision 2020. The Gateway Program has as its primary objective to attract a critical mass of export oriented industries into the country to kick start the export growth of the economy. For that reason we need to improve the trade facilitation in the country and the ports have to play a major role. We have to work to reduce the cost of doing business in the ports and to facilitate trade, to be able to turn round vessels as fast as possible, generally to improve performance at the port and make trade attractive to foreign investors.
According to Dr. Yankey he expects the level of exports and imports to triple which will obviously mean that the infrastructure will have to grow three fold. Are there any concrete plans to actually start development of the ports?
With the development of the EPZ we expect to have a growth in trade and for that matter a growth of cargo throughputs in the port but it does not necessarily mean you have to expand the facilities 2 or 3 fold to match. You may have to introduce improved management into the operations and that could help reduce the cost of development. You may also have to introduce modern equipment to change the existing operation to make it more efficient. In 1994/5 we commissioned what we call the Master Plan study with the support of the EU to advise the port on what to do in the coming years with regards to looking at cargo projections, cargo throughput and trafficking. The recommendations which were accepted from that study included an organizational restructuring of the GPHA, an institutional restructuring and, infrastructural development. These 3 are to be tackled to support the Gateway program-the growth in trade and in cargo throughputs and traffic.
Are there concrete measures that have been taken to redevelop these 3 different sections?
Yes. We are currently preparing to downsize or dissolve the headquarters of Ghana Ports and Harbours in order to create 2 autonomous ports at Tema and Takoradi and to become a landlord port authority. Then we will introduce more private sector participation into the activities of the port because we will then be a landlord and allow organizations with the right expertise to come in and do the operations at the ports, especially in container handling and then privatize other areas like engineering, horticultural services, cleaning and more. That is for the organizational and institutional restructuring. Then regarding the infrastructure we have proposed to do some limited dredging of the port and to do some quey extension to be able to take second generation vessels with draft of about 11 meters. We are also organizing a study to look at the long-term development, that is, the development of a third port and or the expansion of the facilities that we have in the ports.
| Coming back to the privatization of the ports, can you tell us a bit more about it, if there have been any other private parties involved and exactly which parts of the GPHA are actually going to be privatized?
We are looking at the container handling and the general cargo as well. The Ministry of Roads and Transport has recruited a consortium which is currently working to advise and provide technical assistance in the privatization exercise and that is on-going at the moment. The consortium is covering consultancy in the areas of finance, management, legal, operations and labour.
When we saw the managing director of Maersk he said he was putting in a bid for one of the operations. Are there any other foreign companies which are bidding as well?
I am happy with their enthusiasm to participate. The issue is that the studies are on going, the modalities will be developed and announced and interested parties can then come in with their bids. Those are details that have not been concluded as yet.
How do you see yourself competing with the other West African ports?
I think we have many competitive advantages over other West African ports. Here in Tema, for example, we know that with the level of performance, productivity as well as the typical Ghanaian hospitality, the way in which we receive people, have given us a lot of good will and we have started attracting cargo from some of these landlocked countries like Burkina Faso and Niger. These are newly explored areas and both countries have offices here. They have their Chambers of Commerce here and they have their Shippers’ Councils here with whom we are working. From all indications they are quite happy with our performance and we are likely to attract other countries.
With all the restructuring that you are doing, how do you see the future of the GPHA in this respect?
The GPHA as I said earlier will assume a landlord role in the long run and do the regulatory and supervisory role of the private operators which will be working in the port. Therefore we will have a smaller size of staff and we will be more efficient in terms of tapping on the expertise of companies, which are already in the business and are on the ground. Besides, we are a government organization and as we all know government is not good in business. We have to leave real in-depth business to those who can do it better, so I believe if we leave the business to those who have the expertise and the management we will be better off. Again there is a kind of bureaucracy and inertia associated with public organizations generally. Therefore, if we divorce ourselves from the actual port operations and just play the regulatory and supervisory roles I think GPHA has a very good future.
Since you have been Acting Director General, what has been your greatest challenge?
I would say that my greatest challenge has been managing the labour. I have come to realize that managing the people is the most difficult part of the whole thing and there is no real formula to manage people. You have to look at them on individual basis. Sometimes a solution, which may be acceptable to one, may not be acceptable to another. How to determine what measures to apply in specific individual situations is the greatest challenge. You may have rules and regulations but you may not want to manage strictly according to them because if you did that you may be too rigid. At the same time exercising that flexibility sometimes leads to problems. You might be able to exercise flexibility with some that might not be appropriate for others. The crux of the matter is how to apply rules and regulations with just the right amount of flexibility where necessary.
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© World INvestment NEws, 1999.
This is the electronic edition of the special country report on Ghana published in Forbes
December 13th 1999 Issue.
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GHANA
