Ghana is second to Togo in terms of Road Governance: USAID report reveals

A quarterly report published in October and December last year by the USAID West Africa Trade Hub placed Togo ahead of Ghana in terms of road governance in the sub region.  A Transport Specialist at the USAID West African Trade Hub, Noel Kossonou who made the revelation in Paga, said though Ghana’s performance has been one of the best in the sub region, there is more room for improvement.  Mr Kossonou presented the fact to Radio Ghana at a day’s training programme organised for importers, exporters, transport operators and clearing agents at the Paga-Dakola Border in Paga.  The training session was to enlighten participants on border procedures, create a platform for stakeholders to communicate with border officials and also review the current activities of Border Information Centres. It was subsequently aimed at providing recommendations to improve the services the centre provides to better assist stakeholders at the border.  According to Mr kossonou, Ghana use to be the best but with the removal of excess barriers and road check points, Togo was able to outwit Ghana as custom officials and the police succeeded in eliminating most of its fake check points.  The move, he noted, was worthy of emulation and appealed to the police and other security agencies to assist in removing some of the illegal check points for easy facilitation of goods and people.  He lamented that corridor studies conducted by his outfit identified Police harassment at the country’s borders and check points as the major challenge and complaint received mostly at their end. These complaints, he indicated were against the police since they were culpable to practices of extortion and bribes. Mr Kossonou however reminded the police to desist from such practices as it undermines the integrity of the country’s effort on road governance. He seized the opportunity to commend the Paga border for its sterling performance in terms of bribery, revealing that, the Paga border collects less than 2 dollars on average per truck as compared to countries like Mali and Burkina Faso.  He noted that in terms of delays,   Paga ought to do better since transporters spend close to four hours based on the quarter data analysis by the USAID–West African Trade Hub. Mr Kossonou was hopeful that with prudent mechanisms put in place, Paga was poised to become one of the best in the country. He was additionally hopeful that with the training program, participants would be abreast of the best practices for imports and exports and make use of the border information centre to help avoid delays and bribery on the country’s road corridors.