PMAWCA Secretary Now Director General of Ghana Ports

Eromosele Abiodun

The Secretary General of the Ports Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA), Mr. Micheal Achagwe Luguje has assumed office as Director General of the Ghana Ports and Habours Authority (GPHA).

Luguje’s appointment was approved in June by President Nana Akufo-Addo, following his decision to sack the former DG Mr. Paul Asare. The Director of Tema Ports, Mr. Edward Kofi Osei, was directed to hold forth while Luguje “clears” his desk at the PMAWCA Secretariat in Lagos, Nigeria.

An accomplished bilingual port management specialist, who has served at very senior levels at international port and maritime institutions, Luguje’s managerial skills, will no doubt help GPHA to reposition Ghana as the preferred hub of maritime commerce in West Africa, in line with President’s Akufo-Addo’s vision.

He has garnered extensive cognate experience in the ports sector of West and Central Africa; as a reforms and change expert with remarkable achievements in team building, employee motivation, and strict adherence to service quality and productivity.

Luguje joined GPHA in 1999 after serving as a National Youth Intern with the organisation the previous year. During his early days, he distinguished himself as a disciplined pacesetter and rose to become Special Assistant to the DG of GPHA about five years after joining the organisation.

He secured his first high profile international job in 2007 as the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Regional Coordinator for West and Central Africa. IMO is the United Nations specialized agency responsible for global regulation of shipping and maritime transport.

After five years with the IMO, he was elected as Secretary General of PMAWCA in 2012. PMAWCA is a sub-regional intergovernmental economic organisation, made up of 23 regular member ports and nine associate members including landlocked countries and maritime organisations, all located along the Western Atlantic Coast of the African continent, stretching from Mauritania to Angola.

While on his tour of duty at PMAWCA, he also served as Executive Secretary of the Pan African Association of Port Cooperation (PAPC), the continental body for the three regional port associations, from 2012 to 2017.

Luguje holds an Executive MBA in Project and Strategic Management from the Paris Graduate School of Management and Master of Science in Maritime Affairs (Port Management Specialisation) from the World Maritime University (WMU), Malmo – Sweden. He is also a Graduate of French and Linguistics, University of Ghana (Legon). He has attended numerous professional training seminars and workshops on port reforms, human resource management, performance indicators, concessions management and project management.

As Secretary General of PMAWCA, Luguje engendered greater vibrancy and prudency in the affairs of the association. In 2017, he mobilised member ports from the region to support the candidacy of Ms. Hadiza Bala-Usman, Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority, who became the first to be elected Vice President (Africa Region) of the International Association of Ports and Habours (IAPH), under its new constitution.

President of PMAWCA and Chairman of Cape Verde’s Port Administration, Mr. Jorge Pimenta Mauricio, in a communication to the chief executives of all regular and associate member ports wrote: “As you will all agree with me, PMAWCA must be proud and grateful to the President of the Republic of Ghana and his government for this appointment which is not only in recognition of Mr. Micheal Luguje’s professional competence as an individual, but also an endorsement of PMAWCA as a beacon of rich skills and competence in port management from which our Governments can obtain the best experts to serve at the highest level in all key areas of the port, logistics and maritime transport sector.

“Over the last six years of his stewardship as Secretary General, PMAWCA can attest to Luguje’s professional competence, team spirit and dedication to producing good results, which has repositioned our Association among the best sub-regional port organizations in Africa and beyond. We therefore have no doubt that he would be successful in his new role as Director General of the GPHA. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Council and members of the Association, I extend our congratulations to Mr. Luguje on his appointment and wish him best success in this new role of higher responsibility”.

Although his notice of resignation has been formally received, the association’s president has requested Luguje to maintain general supervision over the work of the PMAWCA Secretariat for the month of July so that the 39th PMAWCA Council Meeting which will hold in Accra at the end of July could take a decision on modalities to elect a new Secretary General.