Tema, June 23, GNA – The Ghana Shippers’
Authority (GSA) is organizing a six week French language course for freight
forwarders as part of efforts to address their linguistic challenges as Ghana
firms her maritime and transit trade hub status.
Thirty freight forwarders from various groups
such as Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF) are benefiting from the
training programme which will help create a hotbed for the acquisition of
French proficiency for them across the country.
Madam Benonita Bismark, Chief Executive
Officer, GSA, said “Most of us are aware of the cardinal role freight
forwarders play in transit trade facilitation. I want to assure our freight
forwarders that the GSA will continue to stand with you to help raise a lot more
professionally oriented members within your fold.”
According to her, transit trade through Ghana
to destinations such as Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali had grown over the years
and expected to hit I million metric tonnes through the Tema port.
She said a number of interventions had been
introduced both home and abroad at the national and international levels to
meet the growth.
“For instance, at the national level,
President Akufo-Addo met in 2017 with his Burkina Faso counterpart Roach Marc
Kabore to address a railway interconnectivity project to facilitate transit
trade,” she said.
According to her, at the institutional level,
the GSA had been at the forefront of transit trade facilitation over the years
which included the setting up of the Greater Accra and Western Regional Shipper
committees which provide active platforms for addressing transit issues.
“We have resolved long standing issues between
Ghanaian transit drivers and drivers of Burkina Faso and Niger. We have pushed
for the removal of the withholding tax on transit goods and led the
re-organisation of Ghanaian transit transport groups.”
Madam Bismack said the GSA served as the focal
point for Borderless Alliance’s e-platform which was for the monitoring and
resolving issues related to non-tariff barriers along Ghana’s transit routes.
“The Ghana Shipper Authority had led the
campaign for the removal of Value added Tax (VAT) on transit goods,’ she said.
According to her, in spite of the crucial
interventions of the GSA, the Ghanaian freight forwarder’s proficiency in
French, the official language of Ghana’s neighbours, was woefully
inadequate.
She said the Board Chairman of GSA, Mrs Stella
Wilson, mooted the idea of partnering the French Embassy to develop a
curriculum to help them achieve a basic business proficiency in French.
“A number of freight forwarders have expressed
their disappointment for losing transit business in the past owing to the
inability to communicate in the French language,” she disclosed.
GNA