The Ghana Shippers’ Authority (GSA) has begun engagement with state agencies on the avoidance of demurrage – fees importers pay for overstayed containers – as well as measures to take to avoid goods being classified unto Uncleared Cargo List (UCL).
This comes on the back of a GSA research which identified many state organizations enlisted as demurrage and UCL faulters.
According to the GSA the move is not only to aid the state organizations to avoid UCL or the payment of demurrage but also to help them save money to cater for other operational expenses.
This came up when the GSA paid a working visit to the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) on 9th June 2022, as part of its stakeholder education and sensitization.
During the meeting, officials from the GWCL noted that demurrage is one of the biggest headaches of the company as they are obliged to import chemicals, machines, and some equipment to support their operations.
Head of Shipper Services and Trade Facilitation at the GSA, Mrs. Monica Josiah informed the officials of the GWCL that the Authority is aware of the situation and is ready to offer real-time assistance to any demurrage complaint from state institutions.
“There are many ways state organizations can use to avoid the payment of demurrage. The numbers are not good and therefore we are doing a lot of sensitization on how to avoid demurrage as a shipper. For state organizations we want to sit with them and understand the challenge to help them solve it” she said.
