World Bank pledges €3.5m to reform Tema Port
Oct 21, 2016: The World Bank, in collaboration with ECOWAS, are calling for reforms at the Tema Port under a European Union funded Improved and Facilitated Trade in West Africa Project.
The project aims to give the Tema Port a turnaround to improve the flow of regional and international trade, by unlocking transit challenges.
It will focus on reducing the time and cost to trade as well as increase border agency cooperation and coordination to encourage better flow of trade along the region’s major trading partners.
As part of the project, the World Bank has identified various areas within the Tema Port where there is need for reforms—specifically cross-cutting reforms, transit regime reforms and import and export reforms—to reposition the port as the preferred trade hub in the sub-region.
Obi Ihonor, Private Sector Specialist, Trade and Competitiveness at the World Bank Group (WBG) and Project Leader, speaking at a workshop in Accra to present recommendations of a two-day private sector workshop to government agencies working at the Tema Port, said the project will improve trade in West Africa, specifically, transit trade along the region’s major trade corridors.
She said: “The World Bank Group and ECOWAS, will work together with the various state actors to review ways of obtaining optimal usage of the process map to ultimately develop an implementation roadmap for the agreed enhancements to the import-export-transit experience at Tema Port.”
The €3.5 million Improved and Facilitated Trade in West Africa Project is a four-year initiative that was launched in November 2014. The project seeks to support ECOWAS to improve trade in the sub-region as part of efforts to increase transparency, identify bottlenecks and develop a clear plan to support the overall improvement of export, import and transit processes.
The reforms, the World Bank says will eliminate hard copy documents, streamline cargo inspections and sampling processes, eliminate redundant fees and duties and address misalignment between operational hours of stakeholders/agencies.
