Africa: Ghana Tops West, Central Africa in Maritime Safety Oversight

What the report says

Ghana has been highlighted as the leading performer in maritime safety enforcement in West and Central Africa, according to a report carried by Ghanaian Times and distributed by AllAfrica. The recognition was announced at the 16th Port State Control Committee Meeting of the Abuja Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which was held in Libreville, Gabon.

The report said Ghanaian inspectors found compliance failures on 129 of 288 vessels checked at the country’s ports in 2025, with 645 individual deficiencies recorded. That was part of a wider total of 1,571 maritime deficiencies identified across the sub-region. The Abuja MoU coordinates port state control across member countries to keep unsafe or non-compliant ships from operating in territorial waters.

The article said Ghana’s inspection record remained strong over three years, with high detection rates in 2023, 2024 and 2025. At the same time, it noted limits in inspection coverage: Ghana’s ports handled 2,108 ship calls in 2025, but only 289 of 1,112 eligible vessels were boarded, leaving many uninspected because of operational constraints.

The Ghana Maritime Authority also cited staffing shortages, training needs, corruption risks and weak offshore inspection and vessel-tracking capacity. The report said officials want more digital tools, including the Maritime Single Window, to improve risk screening and monitoring. A GMA deputy director-general said the result reflected the professionalism of inspectors and that more personnel and training had already been added.