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The UNIPASS system that was deployed at the Takoradi Port has been a huge success, as it delivered to perfection under the Single Window operation at that port.
Various reports to create the impression that the UNIPASS system had failed at Takoradi were a hoax and nothing else.
It can never be true that the UNIPASS system failed such that importers could not clear their goods.
The UNIPASS end-to-end system went live at the Takoradi Port on April 1, this year.
The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed business at various ports worldwide, the Takoradi Port is not exempted, and so it was totally absurd for anyone to suggest that the UNIPASS system was causing slow clearance of goods at the Takoradi Port.
The Inquisitor has gleaned documents that suggest that importers were going about the clearing of goods without hitches.
UNIPASS is dealing with some two banks to take payments from importers within the chain of activities.
One thing that is important is the update of the UNIPASS system by the banks to alert the importers that their transactions were through.
The update is the end point of the process and once it is not updated it means that the banks did not complete the process.
What that means is that UNIPASS could not be faulted if any of the banks do not update transactions by importers on the UNIPASS system.
The government in search of a single vendor to operate the Single Window at the nation’s ports and other entry points singled UNIPASS because of its superior end-to-end system as compared to entities that were running the Single Window.
UNIPASS is promoted by Ghana Link Network Services and Korea Customs Services Division (CUPIA).
How UNIPASS Started
The feasibility studies on the capabilities of UNIPASS started in 2015, when Ghana and its Korean partners sold their unique idea to the government at the time.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry, under the watch of Mr. Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, signed a 10-year contract with the company.
The Economic Management Team (EMT), headed by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, in the past, has had cause to put the UNIPASS takeover of single window operations on hold.
The whole move was to enable the establishment to have a proper understanding of the UNIPASS system and how it was going to help Ghana.
The promoters also used that decision by the EMT to tidy all weak ends and prepare very well for the takeover.
So far, thousands of Customs officials of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) have been trained on the new system.
Other stakeholders including banks and freight forwarders have also been trained on the operations of the UNIPASS system and how it will fast-track activities at the port.
Call On Freight Forwarders To Embrace UNIPASS System.
The president of the Chamber of Freight Forwarders and Traders, Dennis Amfo Sefa, says he expects freight forwarders to warm up to the idea of the UNIPASS single window system at the country’s ports.
Just like how the Ghana Community Network System (GcNet) took over the country’s ports in 2002, Mr. Sefa said the UNIPASS system should be allowed time to develop.
It took about two years for GcNet and West Blue Consulting, the two companies that were initially operating the single window system, to integrate and work cohesively.
“We were all over the place. We did not understand why the government wanted to change the system that we had [at the time to GcNet] because it was perfect and it was working. We were also complaining that we had not been trained,” he recalled on Citi TV’s The Point of View.
“So it takes time. There is no way freight forwarders will embrace change without friction.”
GcNet eventually trained over 100 companies at the time it rolled out its system.
Mr. Safo noted that the old systems also faced similar challenges.
“We resisted GcNet. We resisted West Blue, but today we are saying GcNet and West Blue are okay. So with time, we will get there. You will see that in two, three or four years time, we will come back here and say that UNIPASS is the best.”
Source: The Inquisitor