President Akufo-Addo has reappointed bilingual port management specialist, Michael Achagwe Luguje, as the Director General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA).
A statement signed by the Chief of Staff dated September 1, announced the 11-member board of the Authority including Isaac Osei as chairman and Mr Luguje as the Director General, a position he has held since 2018.
The appointment, according to the letter, was “by the president in consultation with the Council of State”.
The Ministry of Transport is expected to take the necessary steps to swear the appointed members of the governing board into office.
In a response to a recent call by the Minister of Public Enterprises, Joseph Cudjoe, for the Authority to continue to position its operations to maintain profitability, Mr. Luguje disclosed the strategic partnerships the Authority has entered into for the necessary port infrastructure comparable to world-class standards despite financial constraints.
“If you go to the advanced countries, government advances money for all the basic port infrastructure like dredging works, quay walls and breakwaters, the reclamation of land and other basic marine works. In our part of the world, given the constraints of government, the Port Authority must generate its own resources for all these functions”, he said
Mr Lujuge was first appointed as the Director-General of GHAPOHA in June 2018 after the termination of Paul Asare Ansah’s appointment. Before the appointment, he was the Executive Secretary of the Ports Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA), a position he assumed on 1 August 2012.
Before assuming the office of the Secretary General of PMAWCA, Mr Luguje worked for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as the Regional Coordinator for West and Central Africa (non-Francophone countries) from 2007 to 2012.
Until his election to the IMO, he served the GPHA in various strategic departments including Human Resources, Marketing & Public Relations, Corporate Planning and the office of the Director-General. He rose through the ranks by hard work to the position of Sectional Manager (Corporate Planning), a position he combined with ‘Special Assistant’ to the Director-General.
By way of educational credentials, Mr Luguje holds a B.A. Degree in French and Linguistics from the University of Ghana, MSc in Maritime Affairs (specializing in Port Management) from the World Maritime University (Sweden), and MBA in Project and Strategic Management from the Paris Graduate School of Management (France).
By P.D Wedam|3news.com|Ghana