Minister Allieu Momodu Pat-Sowe said the importation of containers into the country was of great interest to many people, especially when some customers had complained about the quality of handling of their goods. He added that in most cases they had received incomplete goods at the country’s port whenever they crosschecked their shipment.

“It is against this backdrop that a new scanner has been installed to help facilitate the scanning processes of containers carrying goods and ensuring that the processes are up to international standards”, he said.

The minister of trade alsostated that it was obvious the unit responsible for scanning of containers had been challenged in their operations over the years, noting that it was as a result of those difficulties that the idea of installing a modernised scanner came to play.

He added that the scanning unithad been upgraded to meet international standards and that there would be no more discrepancies as reported before.

“With the newly installed scanner containers are being thoroughly checked and scanned before grantingentrance into the country”, he observed, and called upon everyone to restore their confidence in the port’s operations.

General Manager of Sierra Leone Ports Authority, Abu Bakarr Bangura, said the current state of the country’s ports authority was of international standard with many facilities,including the newly installed scanning equipment whichwas a multipurpose equipment.

During the inspectionmany units were visited by the minister and his team, one of them being the control room of the scanner which could handle a 20 ft container within three minutes and three minutes it was a 40 ft container.

Ekoh Hayford, representing Africa Link Inspection Company, which installed and operated the new scanner, said the process was so thorough that if there were any discrepancies the container would be refused entry