Ghana Maritime Authority ended 2020 with GHS 88m profit
The 2021 Auditor-General’s report of the audited financial statements of the Ghana Maritime Authority for the year-end December 31, 2020, has revealed that the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA’s) operations for the year under review ended with a surplus of GH¢88,943,474 compared with GH¢70,539,716 recorded in 2019, representing an increase of 26.1%.
Total income for the year was GH¢217,441,329 as against GH¢164,129,088 recorded in 2019.
This represents an improvement of 32.5% and was mainly due to an increase of 34.5% in maritime safety charges from GH¢99,793,853 in 2019 to GH¢134,237,748 in 2020.
Total expenditure also increased by 37.3% from GH¢93,589,372 in 2019 to GH¢128,497,855 in 2020.
The increase was mainly attributable to a 36.8% rise in administrative and overhead expenses from GH¢89,151,817 in 2019 to GH¢121,917,322 in 2020.
Financial position
Non-current assets, which included intangible assets, went up by 69.1% from GH¢114,111,472 in 2019 to GH¢192,978,551 in 2020.
The rise was due to the acquisition of property, plant and equipment during the year.
Current assets also increased “significantly” by 26.0% from GH¢111,936,137 in 2019 to GH¢141,075,444 in 2020, the report said.
The variation, the report pointed out, was mainly due to an increase of GH¢19,891,109 or 38.7% in trade and other receivables which rose from GH¢51,375,052 in 2019 to GH¢71,266,161 in 2020.
Current liabilities also saw an increase of 148.6% from GH¢12,045,049 in 2019 to GH¢29,944,336 in 2020.
The increase was due to a provision of GH¢14,919,947 made for end-of-service benefits in 2020.
Non-current liabilities increased to GH¢11,309,453.
This represents a long-term loan procured from Ecobank to finance the construction of office buildings in Accra, Tema, and Takoradi.
The liquidity position of the Authority was 4.7:1 in 2020 as compared with 9.3:1 in 2019.
“This is an indication that the Authority is still in a position to discharge its short-term financial obligations as and when they fall due,” the report noted.
