Mr Luguje, who polled 13 out of 14 votes, has received congratulations from the from the Board, Management and Staff of GPHA.

He will assume the responsibility until the next annual general meeting at the IAPH World Ports Conference in 2023.

He takes over from Jens Meier, IAPH Vice-President for the Europe Region and Chief Executive Officer of Hamburg Port Authority, who was additionally appointed as temporary Coordinator for Africa following the tenure of Hadiza Bala-Usman, former Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority.

The IAPH is the global alliance of Ports and Harbours, with membership of over 160 Ports and 120 port-related businesses from 87 countries.

The GPHA is a member of the IAPH, and it is significant that its Director General now holds the position of Vice-President for the Africa Region.

IAPH statement

The IAPH, in a statement, said it was pleased with the election of Mr Luguje.

Commenting on his election, Mr Luguje stated: “On behalf of my country Ghana and the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, I thank IAPH’s member organisations in Africa for the confidence they have placed in me.

“During my tenure, I will focus on rallying Africa’s ports to further enhance our resilience through stronger cooperation, knowledge sharing and capacity building within Africa and globally under the umbrella of the IAPH.”

The IAPH President, Captain Subramaniam Karuppiah, stated: “We are delighted to welcome Michael to the IAPH board and his new role as Vice-President.

“In recent years, he has worked very closely with our team on raising the profile of the global initiatives taken by IAPH, in particular the efforts to accelerate digitalisation in the maritime supply chain and the importance of establishing a sound port cybersecurity strategy, with IAPH experts attending in person and remotely at the recent Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA) conference in Douala, Cameroun.”