I built a tool to estimate the real cost of clearing a car in Ghana

Hi everyone,

I've been quietly working on a small project for the Ghana car import market and wanted to share it here to get some feedback.

One thing I've noticed is that before people import a car into Ghana, they always ask the same question:

How much will it actually cost to clear this vehicle?

If you've ever tried to calculate clearing costs yourself, you know how confusing it can get. Most people end up calling multiple clearing agents and getting different estimates.

Part of the problem is that the duty structure has a lot of separate charges, including things like:

- Import Duty

- VAT

- NHIL

- GETFund Levy

- ECOWAS Levy

- AU Levy

- EXIM Levy

- Examination Fee

- Processing Fee

- Overage penalties for vehicles older than 10 years

So I built a tool called TradeEasy to make this easier.

What it currently does:

- Search for vehicles (1,200+ cars across 22 popular brands)

- Shows the GRA benchmark value

- Calculates a full clearing cost breakdown

- Uses real benchmark data from Ghana customs sources

- Real-time search so results appear instantly while typing

Interestingly, I initially tried building a general import duty calculator, but after talking to traders I realized most general importers just rely on agents who charge flat clearing fees.

Cars are different though. People want to know the exact numbers before committing to buy or ship a vehicle.

Tech stack for anyone curious:

- React

- FastAPI

- PostgreSQL

- Celery

- A custom scraper that pulls benchmark data daily

It's still early, and I'm mainly looking for feedback.

If you've ever imported a car into Ghana, what features would you want in a tool like this?

Or if you're a developer who's built something similar for another country, I'd love to hear your thoughts too.