The Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF) has cautioned that the directive by Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, the Minister of Finance, restricting the transit of commercial quantities of cooking oil through Ghana’s land borders, could have implications for the country’s transit trade.
The directive followed the alleged diversion of trucks carrying cooking oil under transit arrangements, linked to Bill of Entry (BOE) 80226125039.
Mr Paul K. Mensah, the General Secretary of GIFF, addressing the media at Tema, called on the Minister to undertake an urgent, evidence-based review of the policy actions that followed the enforcement episode.
He stressed that the Institute’s intervention did not seek to excuse illegality but rather to ensure policy balance that protected government revenue, while safeguarding Ghana’s strategic position as the preferred transit gateway to the Sahel region.
“Transit trade is highly sensitive to policy signals. If restrictions are perceived to be broad or prolonged, Sahel-bound cargo may progressively divert,” Mr Mensah said.
He noted that cargo owners in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, maintained alternative coastal corridor options and could quickly adjust routes in response to perceived regulatory friction.
GIFF warned that hardened restrictions could lead to underutilisation of Ghana’s transit infrastructure and a potential softening of customs volumes over the medium term.
“In the West African transit ecosystem, corridor policies often attract reciprocal treatment. If Ghana is perceived as tightening transit access broadly, neighbouring jurisdictions may introduce mirror administrative frictions and recalibrate corridor preferences,” he explained.
The Institute emphasised that Ghana’s leadership role under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) framework, must be preserved through enforcement mechanisms that remain visibly facilitative.
GIFF therefore recommended a focused reform package built on risk-tiered escort protocols, real-time reconciliation dashboards within the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS), strengthened transit bond reviews, and the establishment of a joint Customs–Ghana Link anomaly review cell.
It also proposed sanctions targeted strictly at proven offenders rather than broad commodity-level restrictions.
The institute argued that broad restrictions, if not carefully calibrated, could unintentionally penalise compliant operators and introduce regulatory uncertainty into the transit regime.
Mr Mensah indicated that systemic gaps, including escort policy consistency, transit bond adequacy, route dwell monitoring, and post-clearance reconciliation, should be addressed through targeted, intelligence-driven controls rather than blanket commodity suppression.
GIFF further urged the minister to commission an independent technical reconciliation of the BOE incident, review the proportionality of current measures, convene structured stakeholder engagements, and reaffirm Ghana’s commitment to freedom of transit under strengthened compliance protocols.
“GIFF reiterates its full support for the government’s revenue protection mandate. Our position is straightforward: enforcement credibility and trade facilitation must move in tandem,” he stated.
The institute maintained that balanced, evidence-led reforms would protect revenue while sustaining Ghana’s competitiveness as a transit hub for landlocked countries in the sub-region.
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com
