Okoe-Boye gives two-week ultimatum for officers to clear medical supply containers stucked at Tema port

A two-week ultimatum has been given to officers to clear the consignment of medical supplies stuck in containers at the Tema port which was offered to Ghana by the Global Fund. 

The Minister of Health, Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye who gave the ultimatum on Thursday said he will be compelled to visit the port and sit there until the right thing was done.

“In two weeks, I myself will not be encouraged if there are one or two more containers still left at the port. If by two weeks, we still have containers at the port, you will not see me here, I'll be sitting right at the port and I will sit at the port with them until everything comes out,” he said.

Speaking to journalists in Accra Thursday (June 13), the Minister said there were two factors that accounted for what was happening.

That, he said included the processes the government had to go through to clear containers and lack of coordination between his ministry and the Ministry of Finance.

“We are committed to getting the containers in and for me, personally, irrespective of the bureaucracies involved with government and all that, I have given myself two weeks,” Dr Okoe-Boye said. 

Locked up containers

Hundreds of containers of medical supplies shipped to Ghana have been locked up at the port for over two years because the government was unable to waive taxes on the goods.

After clearing 14 of the containers this year, the government could not clear the remaining 185 containers due to demurrage fees.

Some civil society organisations in the heath area have already declared their intention to embark on a street protest over the delayed clearance on June 25, 2024.