Danish queen Margrethe II leads business delegation to Ghana’s port

Queen Margethe II of Denmark arrived in Accra Ghana on Wednesday 22nd November with a business delegation for a three-day visit.

Prior to her arrival at the Port of Tema, the supreme authority of the Church of Denmark and Commander-in-Chief of the Danish Defence had met the Vice President and then Acting President, Alhaji Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia and engaged other programs.

Queen Margrethe II was accompanied by a business delegation to explore bilateral economic engagements with Ghanaian businesses in the food and agriculture, sustainability, maritime, infrastructure and railway sectors. She first called at the Berth 5 of the Tema Port where a Danish vessel was discharging shea nut which is one of the primary export commodities thriving in the Danish market.

The Queen witnessed the unloading of the Bulk shea nut and after a briefing proceeded to the ongoing Tema Port expansion site which is being undertaken by Meridian Port Services (MPS), a consortium of companies that include a Danish Company APMoller Terminals.

Here, the Queen was briefed by the CEO of MPS, Mohammed Samara and the Tema Port Project Director, Jesper Moeller.

So far on the Tema Port project, about 70 acres out of 168 acres of land had been reclaimed from the sea for the construction of terminals and 1.8km out of 3km breakwater has been constructed.

She was taken through the various phases of the Tema Port Expansion Project. Eventually, the Tema Port Expanded facility will have 17 berths and an annual handling capacity of 3.5million TEU and can also accommodate container vessels of up to 13,000 TEU.

Implementers of the project believe is on schedule as the first berth should be ready by December, 2018, and cranes to be landed on for commissioning. Then in June 2019, 6 months later, two additional berths will be opened for operations.

The entire Tema Port Expansion Project is expected to be completed and opened up for operations by the 4th Quarter of 2019.

From the Tema Port Expansion site, the Queen finally visited the GPHA Towers where he made a stop at the Maersk offices, interacted with staff of Maersk, a Danish company and witnessed the inauguration of a Price Data Systems, software systems supplied by DANIDA to assist Ghana Customs with valuation of goods.