Former President of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF), Kofi Brako, has urged the private sector, especially freight forwarders, to influence policies and decision makings instead of confronting ruling government with their grievances.
According to the former Member of Parliament of Tema Central, affecting political decision-making and policy regarding international trade is key to ensure stronger growth of the industry.
Mr. Kofi Brako gave this advice on Tuesday during a research hub outdoor by the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF) – its maiden edition of GIFF Insight: an innovative journal for advancing international trade.
“All politicians have their manifestoes, and they will always want to work with it, so if we think that we have something that we need to provide, the best thing that we have to do is to influence the manifestoes so that if we are able to achieve that then of course they will be able to implement some of these things,” he said.
Mr. Kofi Brako said the research hub is something they have dreamt of for many years ago, and therefore, the development will yield positive results such as gathering of data which will help improve the industry and the systems.
“Within our industry, we have not moved on because we lack a lot of data. By now, we should be having a Non-Vessel Operating Common Carriers (NVOCCs) in our industry; but we don’t have any of them here, even shipping agencies have also been taken away from us,” Mr. Brako lamented.
He further indicated that: “It is important that we build on what we have introduced today so that in both short and long term all the data that will be collected will make it possible for us to improve the industry”.
President of GIFF, Edward Akrong, said the state-of-the-art research hub is to ensure that policy and decision-making in the ports and maritime industry are backed by scientific research data, and partnership with industry players and international organisations who leverage on ports and maritime data to drive policies.
He said with its 7-member Research Ethics Board, the centre will partner with higher institutions of learning across the continent to organise conferences, seminars and workshop to assess and analyse international trade issues in order to create value chain and wealth for the industry.
