Warehouses are thought to be the limb of the industrial sector but Enoch Owusu Boakye, a Warehouse Supervisor at Somotex Ghana has strongly refuted this based on the Ghanaian warehousing business. He explained that, the business of warehousing in Ghana is not lucrative because the necessary attention and logistics are not readily available to the sector.
Warehouse operations appear to be ignored in the country. “We lack so many logistics in carrying out our activities and that makes our work very difficult. Ghanaians attitude towards this business is very discouraging; moreover there’s very little investment in this sector compared to other businesses.” Claims Mr. Owusu Boakye.
The poor road network and the power crisis don’t make it any easier. Another problem he is anxious about is expertise. He explained that, the sector falls short of qualified persons to ensure accuracy of inventory management and products/services organization.
It was observed that few officers in the warehouse unit had acquired enough knowledge pertaining to the field.
“Supply Chain Management is not taught as a course in business schools. Our tertiary schools don’t have a lot of courses that train people in warehouse management. There are cursory courses in polytechnics, but that’s it.” Boakye said.
He expressed hopes that tertiary institutions in Ghana in the near future would be offering Procurement and Supply Chain Management and other related courses to produce more professionals.
All these problems, however, seem to be just a tip of the iceberg when it comes to bottlenecks to the success story of warehouse operation the country.
Jayant Sawant is the manager of JayKay warehouse. He is not only worried about the lack of the professional touch in the sector but the high degree of staff turnover. He explained that, averagely, a staff works for a period of 3-4 months and resigns from post due to what they term “personal reasons”.
Sawant lamented “Taking the pain to train someone for the job who leaves right after mastering the work only to train someone else who will do the same thing gets frustrating”.
Others slammed the government for making the environment less friendly for their operations with its huge tax policies.
“The taxing on warehousing is too much. It is considered as a commercial rent so we pay 15% on the total amount from the rent and tenants don’t pay rent regularly. The environment makes this operation very difficult,” says Mr Moses Subiri, General Manager of B.A. Mensah Company Limited.
According to him, the system of taxing on warehouse services is very cumbersome and therefore appealed to the government to redefine the warehousing tax policies.
Nevertheless, Boakye did predict a brighter future for warehouse services in the country on the condition that most of the problems undermining the growth of the sector are taken-up and treated accordingly.
Warehouse operators are facing a lot of challenges. This has forced a good number of operators to shut down, but what many may not be aware of is the financial benefits the economy enjoys from these services aside serving as a stock reservoir for lean production times. According to records, from Jan 2013 to May 2014, a whopping GH¢1,329.9 million was collected from only bonded warehouses in the country. However, Ghana can enjoy more benefits if warehouse facilities in the country are made effective and efficient.