The Ghana Shippers’ Authority (GSA) as part of its efforts to address the plight of Ghanaian truck drivers due to growing acts of insurgency in the West African sub-region has intensified engagements with the Joint Association of Port Transport Unions (JAPTU).
This was disclosed at the 2023 third-quarter GSA Western Regional Transit Shipper Committee meeting on the recent activities of insurgents on the Sahelian Corridors and their impact on transit trade.
The Principal Freight and Logistics Officer at the Takoradi Branch, Mr Abdul Haki Bashiru-Dine, enumerated some current interventions of the Ghana Shippers’ Authority in the current situation.
He stated that the GSA was meeting with stakeholders and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration on how to assist drivers caught up in the insurgencies and sensitize drivers who ply that route.
“We will also meet with our stakeholders to find ways of rerouting trucks through Benin, meet with JAPTU to find mitigative measures and hold virtual meetings with Ghanaian Ambassadors in those countries for updates on the situation,” he added.
Recounting some of the insurgent activities involving Ghanaian trucks, he noted that the Joint Association of Port Transport Unions (JAPTU), Tema Chapter, alerted the Ghana Shippers’ Authority, sometime in April 2023, that 26 trucks moving cargo from Burkina Faso into Ghana had been attacked by suspected terrorists and had their cargo seized with the trucks set ablaze.
The Executive Secretary of JAPTU-Tema, Alhaji Musah Ibrahim, called for the government’s quick intervention in insurgent activities involving Ghanaian trucks.
Ghana’s major transit clients over the years have been Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Even though transit trade has been fraught with a myriad of challenges, insurgent activity is the nation’s biggest challenge, causing low transit numbers.
The Transit Shipper Committee is a platform created by the Ghana Shippers’ Authority to discuss challenges to transit trade along our major corridors and come up with innovative solutions to overcome these challenges and enhance the competitiveness of transit shippers in using Ghana’s ports and transport corridors.