The Director-General of Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Mr Ben Owusu-Mensah has said without effective and efficient ports, Ghana’s economy cannot be developed.
This he said had prompted the GPHA to put together a number of measures at the Tema Harbour to facilitate activities there for the good of the economy.
Addressing the media at a soiree at Tema last weekend, Mr. Owusu-Mensah said the port had honoured a greater part of its duties in the Gateway Project, which aims at making Ghana the gateway to West Africa. He said due to the current structures in place, the cost of doing business has been reduced and there is also easy facilitation of trade.
He said the port at Tema has had is share of difficulties in handling goods because it was initially opened in 1962 for general cargo and not for the containers it is handling now.
He said the Authority has done a lot of work to market Tema Harbour which he said has attracted neighbouring countries like Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso for their import and export services.
Mr. Owusu-Menah said the computerization of the ports by the GCNET system and the installation of CCTVs has beefed up security at Ghana’s ports and “security wise, Tema port is the best for doing business in the sub-region”.
He said GPHA in 2006 was able to achieve its objective for 2010, which has prompted the extension of the container terminal to contain more and bigger vessels to reduce queuing at the port.
On the Boankra Inland Port to facilitate trade in the northern part of the country and other landlocked countries, Mr. Owusu-Menah said it had not yet commenced business due to the lack of a railway system. “We can only achieve our aim when the railway line is in placed, otherwise goods could be diverted somewhere else without anybody knowing”.
Other ongoing projects at the Tema Harbour, he said, included a fruit terminal, export container scanning, export shed, additional reefer points and construction of access roads in the environs of the port.
He announced that a new marine block with automatic ship identification system would soon be commissioned to check piracy and other high seas crimes that go on in the territorial waters of Ghana.
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