Expansion of Takoradi Port to start in 2012

The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) would start expansion works at the Takoradi Port in the Western Region as part of measures to decongest the ports in the country.

The Takoradi Port, which was built in 1928 by Sir Gordon Guggisberg, during the colonial era, has seen no major expansion since its construction.

Mr. Kumi Adjei-Sam, Marketing and Corporate Affairs Manager of the GPHA made this known on Tuesday when Award Winners of this year’s 28th National Best Farmers Award visited the Tema Port.

Mr. Adjei-Sam indicated that a contract had being signed with China Harbour Engineering and Jandenul Limited for the expansion and dredging works respectively.

He added that the GPHA was only waiting for the contractors to move to site for the expansion works to start.

He said the Takoradi Port, which currently has four multi-purpose berths and two dedicated berths for manganese and bauxite, would have more space after the expansion.

He noted that the Tema Port would also undergo expansion after the Takoradi project is completed.

Mr. Adjei-Sam further stated that apart from the congestion, the GPHA also wants to increase its activities and has acquired 400 computers to augment its stock to enable the Authority to computerize all its systems.

He said more scanners are needed since the current two installed at the Tema Port was not enough for its operations.

He congratulated the Award Winners and encouraged them to grow more to feed the country and assured that the GPHA was always happy to annually host them.

The 74 Award Winners toured the Port and took a 45-minutes cruise on board the “Manheam” tug boat.

Prior to the visit to the GPHA, the Award Winners had toured the factory of the Cocoa Processing Company (CPC).

Mr. Charles Asante, Acting Managing Director of the CPC in a briefing before the factory tour said the Company was established in 1965 by Dr Kwame Nkrumah to process cocoa into semi finished products which included cocoa butter, cocoa cake and cocoa powder.

Mr. Asante said five percent out of the current semi finished cocoa products they produce is processed into finished goods as chocolate, chocolate spread, pebbles among others by the factory.

He indicated that the CPC has named its lemon flavoured chocolate (Akuafo Bar) in recognition of the contribution of farmers to the economy of the country.

Miss Victoria Aniaku, a member of the National Farmers’ Day Planning Committee, who led the Award Winners, said out of the total 74 Award Winners nine were females.