Bilateral relations between Ghana and Guinea have kicked a notch higher with the visit of the Director General of the Port of Conakry to the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority.

The MD of the Port of Conakry, Mamadou Biro Diallo on 23 February paid a working visit to GPHA, to leverage on the rich experiences of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority in managing the ports of Ghana.

He expressed particular interest in GPHA’s solutions to port congestion, its concession arrangements with private partners, and the administrative structures of the company.

Mr. Diallo, who assumed office December 2021 expressed that, “we have some challenges like everyone does. We came here to see the approach you are taking in solving your own challenges. We are a new management, so we are here to take up best practices to improve on our own operations.”

Led by the General Manager Corporate Planning at GPHA, Samuel Ntow-Kummi, key heads of departments briefed the Guinean delegation on GPHA’s activities.

Mr. Ntow-Kummi indicated that “currently GPHA has concessions in our cargo handling segments. Our marine operations segment still remain under our control. We also perform part of the cargo handling operations. We run terminal 2 as a multipurpose terminal where we handle containerized and bulk cargo. Sometimes we have some RORO vessels delivering some vehicles. Our involvement in cargo handling is very small.”

The General Manager, Risk Management, Mr. Roderick Ocloo added that, “at GPHA, we have the Headquarters, and the ports, Tema and Takoradi who have a director each who serve as deputies to the Director General. At each port, there are various departments who have their managers who also report to the director of ports.”

The Director General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, Michael Luguje, emphasized that the Authority will always provide bilateral support where possible.

The DG asserted that, “within the context of the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa, we have always emphasized stronger collaborations at the subregional level. We encourage a lot of bilateral cooperation, to ensure that at any point in time we are all developing at the same comparative level.”

The delegation also visited the Terminal 3 at the Port of Tema to obtain first-hand experience of the world class operations there.