Select Committee on Finance Commends GCNet on Infrastructure 

A seventeen member delegation from the Select Committee on Finance of Parliament paid a working visit to GCNet to familizarise themselves with the company’s role in trade facilitation, ease of doing business, business competitiveness and revenue mobilization through e-solutions to facilitate Government business as well as that of the private sector. 

Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah, noted that GCNet’s network base positioned it as the leader in the provision of e-Solutions and must be supported as a model Private Public Partnership (PPPs) in the sub-region and Africa. 

He reiterated the Committee’s commitment to working with GCNet on key proposals made to Government to address unnecessary complications as a result of non-clarity of roles of some new entrants in the trade facilitation space. 

Members of the Committee also used the occasion to learn more about the robustness of the valuation models currently in use to drive revenue. 

Deputy General Manager, Mr. Emmanuel Darko, announced that GCNet was currently at the fore front of an advocacy to develop a charter to fast track integration of the reporting regimes of the various agencies on its e-MDA portal so there is improved synergy among them. 

Mr. Darko further stressed the need for the necessary political will to address challenges so that the full benefits of the e-solutions deployed by GCNet are realised. 

To this, the Product Development Manager of GCNet, Mr. Carl Sackey, highlighted among others, one of the key e-solutions - the Letter of Commitment module deployed at no cost to the Bank of Ghana - to help track exports proceeds into the country and also boost the availability of forex in the economy. 

He also announced that to further strengthen the tracking of exports proceeds, for instance, the Bank of Ghana had directed that all exports payments should be accompanied with a mandatory SWIFT number and added that as a result LoC had significantly aided the elimination of human elements and interference in export monitoring. 

For his part, the Tema Branch & Transit Manager of GCNet, Mr. Jimmy Allotey, reiterated his call for the establishment of revenue courts at the ports as part of the measures to address leakages in the revenue mobilisation chain. 

As part of the visit, the Committee members were taken on a guided tour of the operational facilities including the state of the art Data Centre by Mr. Darko and members of Senior Management. 

They were briefed on the operational structure of the company and also some key product deployments about to be launched including the Enhanced Valuation Module (e-Valuator) and the new GCMS III among others.




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