President John Dramani Mahama has dismissed reports in the media suggesting that government is releasing excavators sighted at the Tema Port to owners at midnight.
Speaking during a media encounter at the Jubilee House on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, the President explained that the excavators had become many and occupied huge area of the port and were only moved to a new location to decongest the Tema port.
“In the meantime, a lot of excavators have arrived at the ports and recently somebody said they were being released at midnights to their owners and things, that is not true
“What happened was that they were so many that they had occupied a huge area of the port and congested the port and so we found a land near the Shai Hills near the military installation and the field engineer regiments and others have been given charge to move the excavators from the ports to that area so they can free up space in the ports and they do that in the night because of traffic,” he clarified.
The President assured that before the excavators will be cleared for use government will ensure that they must have a tracker on them, they must be registered by the owner of the excavator and the purpose for which the excavator was imported has to be disclosed to government.
It can be recalled that government recently reviewed the processes for importing excavators into Ghana for permits to be issued to importers to ensure that all equipment imported into the country can tracked on how they are being used.
President Mahama said the new move was part of efforts to fight illegal mining in Ghana which is mainly due to the use of excavators by illegal miners to destroy the environment.
The President declared that no excavator would be allowed into the country without prior permit and that all equipment would be tracked to monitor their use in mining activities.
“We are going to change the permitting regime. You will not be allowed to import an excavator or put it on a ship to Ghana unless you get a permit,” the President said.
The “No Permit, No Excavator” policy is now in force and all excavators are expected to provide permit and purpose of use before they will be cleared at the ports.
