- Trade groups in Ghana push for Publican AI suspension and decentralised customs valuation
A broad alliance of trade associations on Monday stepped up pressure on the government, the finance ministry and the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, arguing that recent policy actions affecting transit trade, customs valuation and digital enforcement have created what it described as a serious governance problem within Ghana’s international trade ecosystem.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra, the coalition, which includes the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders, GUTA, TAGG, CUBAG, FFAG, ACHAG, and the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, among others, said it supported lawful enforcement, revenue protection, and the use of technology, which improves compliance and transparency. Its objection, however, is to what it sees as rushed, weakly consulted and operationally disruptive interventions that are now spilling over into legitimate trade.
At the centre of the dispute is the deployment of Publican AI, a digital tool now being used within the customs environment. The coalition said in its statement that it was not opposed to innovation in principle, and it acknowledged that AI could have a role in risk management, anomaly detection, and intelligence-led enforcement. But it argued that a technology used in a public revenue space cannot operate, in its words, as a “mystery box”, particularly where its outputs may influence valuation, clearance or enforcement decisions without a clearly understood legal and administrative framework.
The groups contend that the current directive effectively imposes AI-generated values as a floor for customs assessment, an approach they say is inconsistent with Ghana’s Customs Act, 2015 (Act 891), which recognises transaction value as the primary basis for valuation and prescribes a sequential methodology for alternatives. They also argue that such a system risks conflicting with international customs valuation principles, which reject arbitrary or minimum values.
To illustrate what they regard as the commercial consequences, the coalition cited the valuation of a consignment of 17,600 bags of wheat bran, which it said generated a duty amount of more than GH¢7.4 million, with actual payable duty of about GH¢2.73 million after exemptions. It contrasted that with earlier assessments on similar consignments from the same exporter to the same importer, arguing that the disparity points to a system generating results that businesses find difficult to interpret, predict or absorb.
The groups also raised concern about the suitability of AI-led valuation for used or non-standard goods, such as second-hand vehicle engines sourced from scrap markets, where pricing is inherently irregular and contextual judgement remains critical. In addition, they warned that if distorted or inflated trade data are embedded in the underlying datasets, the system could just as easily entrench overvaluation as correct undervaluation.
Beyond the AI dispute, the coalition used the press conference to attack the recent recentralisation of the Customs Technical Services Bureau (CTSB), saying a reform intended to improve consistency risks becoming a fresh choke point in the clearance chain. If valuation and technical queries must increasingly be resolved through a single central point without published service standards, escalation rules or response timelines, they argued, then the result will be higher delays, more demurrage exposure and deeper uncertainty for traders and agents.
In one of the statement’s sharper lines, the coalition said Ghana could not hope to build a 24-hour economy while trapping key trade decisions behind what it called a “one-door decision” process. Its preferred alternative is a decentralised valuation system, with approval authority assigned to senior officers outside the centre, backed by transparent timelines, documented appeal routes and clearer reasoning for decisions.
The groups also turned their attention to transit trade controls, arguing that the recent restriction of land transit for selected goods may have broader consequences than policymakers appear to acknowledge. While the measure has been framed as a revenue-protection intervention, the coalition said it sends an unsettling signal to shippers, corridor users, neighbouring states and logistics investors that Ghana may be shifting away from a predictable, rules-based transit regime towards a more ad hoc control framework.
That matters because transit trade is won less by announcements than by confidence. In the coalition’s view, cargo moves where rules are predictable, enforcement is trusted and administrative shocks are limited. Once those conditions are undermined, cargo simply diverts — and diverted cargo is notoriously difficult to recover. The groups therefore argued that any attempt to deal with leakages in the transit system should focus on intelligence, e-tracking integrity and targeted enforcement against abuse rather than measures that burden compliant operators.
A further grievance relates to the accumulation of fees and charges imposed by MDAs, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Ghana Standards Authority, Food and Drugs Authority, Narcotics Control Commission, Plant Protection Regulatory Division and Veterinary Services. The coalition said these charges have been revised upward too frequently and now add to the strain on traders already facing a difficult operating environment. It is calling for a downward review as part of what it framed as support for the government’s broader economic reset agenda.
Taken together, the statement is less a narrow objection to one digital tool than a wider complaint about the direction of trade governance. The coalition argued that Ghana’s international trade system works best when enforcement, facilitation, risk management, port operations and stakeholder accountability are aligned within a coherent multi-agency framework. When that structure weakens, it said, policy begins to arrive in fragments — one directive here, one platform there, one bureau reshaped elsewhere — leaving the trade community to navigate uncertainty piecemeal.
The coalition’s formal demands are sweeping. They include the immediate review or suspension of the directive governing the use of Publican AI in valuation, the urgent establishment of an independent appeals mechanism, the decentralisation of valuation processes, structured stakeholder engagement on the transit regime and other new trade policies, full alignment of interventions with the Customs Act and related laws, and a downward review of MDA fees and charges.
More significantly, the groups warned that continued disregard for their concerns could leave industry players with “no option” but to pursue further lawful steps, including coordinated industrial action across affected agencies and operators. That threat raises the stakes considerably. A serious disruption at the ports or borders would not merely inconvenience importers and agents; it would test Ghana’s claims to trade facilitation efficiency at a time when regional competition for cargo, investment and logistics credibility remains intense.
The coalition’s message, ultimately, is that enforcement and facilitation must move together. Ghana, it said, must not become a difficult corridor in the name of fixing leakages. It must become, instead, a smart, trusted and competitive one.
