EXPANSION AT PORT OF TEMA GHANA BEGINS

Work on Ghana’s Tema Port Expansion Project officially started in early October 2016 according to the Ghana Ports & Harbors Authority (GPHA). This capital development project is being executed by the Meridian Port Services (MPS) which is a consortium of three main institutions Bolore Africa Logistics APM Terminal and GPHA. The contract for the construction of the Tema Port Expansion Project was awarded to the China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC) and AECOM professional services (Ghana). The $1.5 billion construction works are being financed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The funding for the first phase of the project includes $195 million from IFC’s own account and $472 million from three commercial banks – Bank of China Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Standard Bank – as well as the Dutch development bank FMO. MPS shareholders are providing the balance of the funds.

The new container terminal will be located 30 kilometers (some 19 miles) east of Accra. The port improvements will include a 1400-meter (4600-feet) long quay for four container berths with a 16-meter (52-foot) draft a container yard a new four-kilometer (almost 2.5-mile) long breakwater and a 19-meter (62-foot) deep access channel making it deep enough to accommodate some of the world’s biggest container ships. The project should be completed by the fourth quarter of 2019. This is one of the largest port infrastructure investments in sub-Saharan Africa from the International Finance Corporation.