The government has told shipping firms and their agents to collect the approved GH¢720 Container Administrative Charge before it will resume negotiations with them over the implementation of the charge.
The Minister for Transport, Joseph Bukari Nikpe, said the government’s position follows a court ruling that dismissed an application seeking to block implementation of the GH¢720 charge at Ghana’s ports.
Speaking in an interview with Bernard Avle on Channel One TV’s The Point of View on Wednesday, September 9, Mr Nikpe said lawyers for the affected companies had approached government to resume negotiations outside court.
“As I’m talking to you, their lawyers have reached out to us that they will want us to continue the conversation out of court, and we are telling them that before we will agree, they will have to be collecting or charging the GH¢720 as we communicated to them before we can sit together with them,” he said.
The GH¢720 charge is the regulatory ceiling for the Container Administrative Charge, also known as the local handling charge, which applies to import and export containers measured by Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit (TEU).
Mr Nikpe said the government had engaged stakeholders over the charge after the Ghana Shippers’ Authority (GSA) reviewed port charges and recommended reductions to ease the cost of doing business.
“Some four months ago, I was here with all my agencies in what I call the Ministry of Transport and Agencies retreat. This is where we all take decisions as to what we are going to do in terms of our plan of activities,” he said.
“It was at this meeting we agreed that the cost of doing business at the port was too high and we needed to do something as a ministry and government. So we charged the Shippers Authority to go into all the charges in the port and see which of them we were going to cut or work on to bring some relief to our people.”
Mr Nikpe said the Container Administrative Charge was initially $165 per container, but the GSA’s review recommended reducing it by $115 to $50, equivalent to about GH¢550 at the time.
However, he said freight forwarders and importers petitioned the government against the implementation, citing inadequate education, sensitisation and stakeholder engagement.
He said government subsequently held about seven meetings with the affected stakeholders to discuss the concerns.
According to Mr Nikpe, the stakeholders later raised concerns that implementing the GH¢50 charge could lead to job losses among Ghanaian workers.
He said the government and the GSA therefore agreed to maintain an interim charge of $65, equivalent to about GH¢720, for one month while further consultations were held.
“These were the Ghanaian workers who petitioned us for us to do something, if not that they were going to be laid off, and we said okay, we wanted to listen to them and as interim, for a period of one month, we were going to listen to all their issues so they should pay $65, which translated to GH¢720,” he said.
Mr Nikpe said before the consultations could be concluded, the affected shipping companies and agents went to court seeking an injunction to stop implementation of the charge.
He said the court dismissed the injunction application, after which the companies sought a stay of execution.
Meanwhile, industry players have called for action against some shipping lines and their agents allegedly charging above the approved GH¢720 container administrative charge.
They argue that charges above the regulatory ceiling are increasing the cost of doing business at Ghana’s ports and creating uncertainty for importers and exporters.
In July 2026, the High Court dismissed an application by the Ship Owners and Agents Association of Ghana (SOAAG) and several shipping agents seeking to block the GSA from implementing the GH¢720 cap.
The ruling, issued on July 10, 2026, allows the GSA to enforce its May 11, 2026 Regulatory Directive limiting the Container Administrative Charge to GH¢720 per TEU.
Mr Nikpe said government remains open to further discussions with the affected companies, but only after the GH¢720 charge is being collected as directed.
SOURCE: CITI NEWSROOM
