From jeans, shirts to trousers save shoes, Oscarpak Enterprise Limited deals in about 50 assorted imported second-hand clothes for all genders, ages and sizes. He imports on the average eight containers a month from the U.S. and Canada, that is two containers every week. He has over 50 clients across the country and beyond its borders. Customers travel all the way from Burkina Faso, La Cote d’Ivoire, Niger and other Francophone countries to patronize his goods.
Oscarpak and the Ghanaian Economy
One of the significant contributions of Oscarpak Enterprise to the Ghanaian economy is the creation of job opportunities for many youth.
The company currently has 10 staff and 9 casual laborers who offload goods from the containers brought from the Tema port. From clearing agents at the port, businessmen and market women, head porters (kayayoos), drivers and mates, truck pushers and other individuals whose survival in the second-hand clothing business depends on the over 90 containers imported every year, Oscarpak provides direct and indirect jobs to a lot of people.
As a responsible and law-abiding company, it also pays import duties to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA)-Customs Division and additional charges to other state agencies playing supervisory and regulatory roles in the maritime trade on every container load of second-hand clothing imported through the Tema port. This generates a lot of revenue to the state.
Challenges and Recommendations
Mr Ankoma, who has a family of four children and a supportive wife, listed some bottlenecks that affect the smooth operation of his business and other shippers in Ghana.
He mentioned the inadequacy of equipment and logistics like cranes and forklifts at in the port, delays of ships to berth, congestion at the port, delays in compliance, system down-times, undue interference in the clearance processes by security agencies among others as some of the factors causing delays and adding to the cost of doing business at the port. He called on the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) to make more provision for logistical support and also appealed to GRA-Customs to speed up on the processing of documents for clearance with the advent of the paperless port system.
On the payment of import duties, Mr Ankoma, a native of Kwahu-Asakraka in the Eastern Region, decried the many tax components on import duties and appealed to government to reduce them.
He believes many people are avoiding the payment of tax and cutting corners because of the overbearing tax burden placed on their businesses. ”Government must reduce taxes; many people are finding ways to dodge the payment of taxes because the taxes are too many and too high. If it is affordable,there is very little reason for people to avoid it. If you make things hard, others may find ways to compromise”, he said.
