The Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders says over 100 of it members risk losing their jobs if authorities do not stop shipping lines from further increasing port charges.
According to the association, they want the Ghana Shippers Authority to come to their aid and stop the shipping companies from charging exorbitant fees at the port for imported and exported goods.
The General Secretary of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders, Mr. Adiam Eric in an interview with Bohyeba Afriyie on Plan B FM ‘Ebaanosen” said the killer charges further compound the problems they are already facing.
“The shipping lines are taking advantage of the trading community by increasing administrative fees and charges on imported and exported goods, and we think that this is not the time to take advantage and extort money from traders. We are not in normal times; we are really suffering,” he said.
Mr. Adiam also added that, the shippers are supposed to engage them before they introduce new charges, but that hasn’t happened because the shipping lines always prefer to sit in their offices and take a unilateral decision without involving them.
“We are paying for port security charge, container cleaning fee, security charge, carrier security fee and other additional charges. All these fees are illegal, which they are not supposed to charge; they are all foreign companies, raising invoices in dollars and using their exchange rates to calculate the charges in cedis, which has made things very difficult for us”.
“This has affected over hundred shipping agents who stand a chance of losing their jobs. These foreign companies are licensed and registered to do business in Ghana, so they are supposed to operate under the laws of Ghana but it looks like they have just taken the system for a ride. We are pleading with the government, the Ghana Shippers authority and other bodies concerned to do something to put an end to all the unnecessary charges at the shipping lines,” he concluded.
Discussion about this post