The Paga Border in the Upper East Region is recording a faster clearance of transit and export trucks following the introduction of overtime operations by Customs Officers.
This comes after congestion at the Tema Harbour and delays along the transit corridor led to a backlog of vehicles bound for Burkina Faso. The Ghana Revenue Authority’s Customs Division begun working until midnight as part of the Government’s 24-hour economy agenda to improve trade facilitation and decongest the Tema Harbour.
Our Upper East Regional Correspondent Mohammed Rabiu Tanko who spent days at the border in Paga observing the clearing of the trucks, reports that, about 4,500 trucks were cleared and released by the Customs officers creating room for additional vehicles to be processed in a space of two weeks.
The majority of these trucks usually park at the border as part of the transit routine and most of them carry perishable goods for transit and export many times that get spoiled even before they get to their destination.
Right from the exit of Navrongo in the Kassena Nankana Municipality on the main ECOWAS road to Burkina Faso which shares administrative border with Kassena Nankana West lines up hundreds of vehicles to the foot of the Ghanaian side of the border in Paga due to the density of presence of trucks ready to be cleared.
The parking space for vehicles at the border which can accommodate about 250 trucks at a time is overwhelmed with trucks ready to be cleared and four times of these numbers have taken every space on the stretch to the border including available residential and private spaces within the Paga township.
The overtime operations by the customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority is in full collaboration with the Burkina Faso border officials at the other side in Dakola who equally spend the same overtime hours in ensuring these vehicles cross the borders to avoid inconveniences and unnecessary security situations.
The swift operations at the Tema Harbour in releasing vehicles for transit has contributed to the efficiency of the border economy and international trade within the West Africa sub-region as well as respecting the ECOWAS trade treaty where movement of goods and services are expected to be smooth without any difficulties.
Vehicles carrying petroleum products have been given the needed priority to be cleared at the border within the two weeks of the night to midnight operations by the Customs officers at the Paga Border.
This move is to also meet the high demands of petroleum products in Burkina Faso which translates to high trade receipts for both Burkina Faso and Ghana.
The quantity of petroleum products carried by tankers in a day, according to our observation, is approximately nine million litres for about two hundred tankers, multiplied by the fourteen days of the operations observed by our reporter.
Most of these truck drivers were very excited and happy on how fast and swift their trucks were being cleared to cross the border irrespective of the time they arrive at the border unlike before this operation.
“Last week before this exercise by the customs officer, I spent days here before I was able to cross to Burkina Faso and it nearly effected me because some customers in Kumasi were waiting for me to return and haulage their goods to Burkina Faso, but today here I am moving after spending just two hours here,” a truck driver said.
“I want to commend the customs officers for exhibiting professional ism in this night and midnight operations because it is not easy handling these trucks especially at midmorning. We as drivers can now make multiple journeys in a week from Ghana to the Sahel regions. I nearly abandoned this work back to the teaching field because I am a teacher by professional training”, another driver expressed appreciation to the customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority.
Due to the high demand for tomatoes from Burkina Faso in this Yuletide and new year, transportation of tomatoes was associated with challenges especially delays at the border. It is now a thing of the past and this does not affect the tomatoes.
More and more trucks are still making their way to the Paga Border from the Tema Harbour as part of facilitating free trade with a borderless approach in the West Africa sub-region and this is expected to rapidly increase revenue for Ghana and improving the haulage transportation sector.
By Tanko Mohammed Rabiu
