Highly inflammable goods stranded at Paga border due to limited hours of operations at Burkinabe side of Ghana-Burkina Faso border

Close to 1,000 transit and export trucks that have been cleared at the Paga Border by the Ghana Customs officers through the 24-hour operations are stranded due to slow operations and lack of space at the Dakola border in Burkina Faso.

This situation is making it difficult for vehicles from Ghana to enter Burkina Faso.

The truck Drivers who have spent some days at the Paga Border are therefore appealing to government to collaborate with their counterparts in Burkina Faso to initiate a 24-hour operation at their borders to help decongest both borders.

The 24-hour operations at the Tema Harbour has created an overtime for customs officers at the Paga Border due to heavy traffic of trucks in transit to Burkina Faso and Mali.

The majority of these trucks carry petroleum and mining chemicals and keeping them for a long period of time at the border is risky, but the situation has compelled them to stay for a long period due to the traffic.

According to the Ghanian Customs officers, another reason for the heavy traffic is the inability of the Burkina Faso side of the border at Dakola to clear these trucks in an overtime operations.

They also do not have enough parking space for vehicles at the Burkina Faso border to accommodate trucks from Ghana.

The officer in charge of the Customs Long Room at the Paga Border, SRO Umar Sulemana said the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority has appealed to the Burkina Faso border officials to consider extending to 24-hour operations in order to decongest the borders.

“We at the Paga Border are doing 24-hour operation working throughout the night to ensure trucks that arrive here are cleared and as I speak to you, every truck here have been cleared and ready to move but the operations at the Burkina Faso border is very slow, so this is the traffic we are witnessing”, he said.

The Customs Division of the GRA is also appealing to the government to expand the inland port which has about 100 acres of land.

They lament that their lands are being encroached and occupied by people.

Some of the drivers expressed their frustrations over the situation at the border and called for overtime operations at the Burkina Faso border to allow them to proceed after being cleared from the Paga Border.

“We drivers transport a million worth of goods from Ghana to Burkina Faso, but now we are in Paga park stranded and these goods are inflammable which is dangerous. Right now, we are facing a lot of challenges here, because when we arrive here to enter into the Burkina border, it is now not easy for us.

For three days today, we have finished our paperwork and proceeded to the Dakola border but no parking place for us over there. Ghana customs are working about 24-hours, but the Burkina customs are not even allowing the 24-hours to succeed because of their delays and is the problem”, Emmanuel Branton, a driver expressed his frustration.

Another driver said “Yesterday, they (Ghana customs officers) worked throughout the night, but the Burkina people said they don’t want to work after this morning, so they closed the border.

That is why we are still here and not moving, so we are still struggling here. So, we are pleading to the Ghana government if they can call on the Burkina president to talk to them to also work 24-hours, maybe one month or two months, all this traffic will reduce.”