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Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah has said he is not in the right position to dictate to his Minister on what to do as some stakeholders of the newly introduced UNIPASS system have tagged him as not being considerate because he is a freight Forwarder.

"I can't talk against the Universal Pass (UNIPASS) system when the authorities in charge have accepted it," he said.

According to him he was appointed to back the good works of the sector Minister he works under and defend the decisions of the government.

The Tema West Member of Parliament (MP) as a panelist on UTV's 'Adekye Nsroma' newspaper discussion show urged stakeholders of the UNIPASS system to exercise patience because government will not in anyway impose a porous system on them.

"I cannot let out some quotes of sincerity concerning this contract but the best system is which this government has offered Ghanaians. Stakeholders should exercise patience for the best," he added. 

Carlos Ahenkorah assured that the stress that stakeholders of the UNIPASS system are going through now is for a short period as they will be used to the system soon. 

He said the government is working hard to sort out demurrage issues with members as promised. 



GRA Shuts Down GCNET

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on June 1, 2020 shut down the Ghana Community Network (GCNet) clearing system as the new Integrated Custom Management System (ICUM) popularly known as Unipass, took over.

This came after piloting the system at some ports including the Takoradi and the Tema Ports and training for stakeholders.

Freight Forwarders protest 

Members of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders have staged a protest to press home to government the need to suspend UNIPASS and revert to the GCNET system of clearing goods at the various ports.

They members claim the UNIPASS system has so many technical anomalies which continued to waste lots of turnaround time.

The Freight Forwarders pitched camp at the Customs Office of the Ghana Revenue Authority Thursday morning in Takoradi to register their displeasure.

The UNIPASS, introduced by the Ghana Revenue Authority was to promote a one stop shop of all financial and transactional dealings by Freight forwarders through a well-integrated system, but unfortunately many have been the negative attributes to the system since it was introduced.