The closing ceremony of the Maritime Week Africa 2018 was climaxed with presentations about the current state of the Ports of Tema and Takoradi and their contributions and preparedness towards making Ghana an Oil and Gas hub.
The General Manager of the Tema Fishing Harbor, Kumi Adjei-Sam who spoke on the topic, Rejuvenating Accra’s nearest Port, highlighted the services of Tema port and elaborated on some measures put in place to enhance trade facilitation.
“A number of cargo handling equipment have also been purchased; ship-to-shore cranes that have also helped in pushing our turnaround times, both for containers and for general cargo and those are some of the things that has made us the best performing port in the West African sub region.”
Kumi Adjei-Sam gave an overview of the Tema port expansion project and said when completed would enable the Port of Tema handle 3.5 million TEUs.
“Currently, we are talking about 1 million TEUs so when we finish and the trans-shipment and other facilities come, it will increase our throughput to about 3.5 million TEU’s. This is the second phase and that is why there are a lot of business opportunities and we are hoping that by June 2019 the first two berths will be completed and start commercial operations and the remaining two, to be completed in 2020.”
He said the unavailability of an efficient rail system is a challenge bedeviling the Ports of Ghana as it gives an upper-hand to other competitors.
The Deputy Manager of Marketing and Public Affairs at the Port of Takoradi, Peter Amo-Bediako who spoke on the topic, Serving Ghana’s Oil and Gas Industry, averred that management of the port has put in place some strategic measures since the discovery of oil in 2007 to make the Port of Takoradi a dominant oil and gas hub in West Africa.
“From January to June 2018 we have so far handled about 904 vessels and out of it 54% is that of supply vessels so we realized that it has become very important that we position our port to be able to service the oil and gas industry,” the Dep. Manager, Marketing and Public Affairs for Takoradi Port, Peter Amo-Bediako said.
Touching on the ongoing Takoradi port expansion works, he said there are several business opportunities for investments.
“The future looks bright I must say, we all remember in December 2017, ITLAWS that is the international tribunal for the law of the seas ruled in favor of Ghana regarding the dispute with ivory coast and this has paved way for development drilling to go on in Ghana. Already Acre energy and Springfield have approved the port and they want to operate from the port because of our proximity a lot of companies are knocking on our doors to come to Takoradi port.”