GPHA rakes GHC140 million profit in 2017

The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) has recorded a whopping GH?140 million as income after tax in 2017 as compared to GH?56 million made in 2016.

The total revenue of GPHA also increased from an amount GH?1 billion recorded in 2016 against GH?1.1 billion which was documented last year.

The Director General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) Mr. Paul Asare Ansah, who disclosed this during a press soiree held at Tema in the Greater Accra Region said, the amounts mentioned indicates significant improvement in the financial performance of the Authority.

Touching on vessels call, he noted that a total of 1, 850 vessels called to transact business at the ports in 2017 against 1, 830 which docked in 2016.

He further pointed out that although the authority failed to achieve its target of 1, 900 vessels last year, the nature of vessels that docked at the port were bigger than those that call in 2016.

He explained further that the bigger vessel calls last year transformed into higher volume of tonnages recorded.

The boss of GPHA mentioned that authority exceeded its target of 20 million Metric Tonnes (MT) of cargo which passed through the ports last year.

According to him, the authority recorded a total of 21 million MT of cargo at the end of 2017 compared to the about 19 million tonnes cargo recorded in 2016.

Mr. Ansah mentioned that so many business associates are prepared to leverage with GPHA because of its ‘significant improved performance’ in terms of vessels call, operations, cargo traffic, financial among others.

He disclosed that his outfit is determined and committed to develop an LNG terminal and a cruise and passenger terminal this year.

According to him, feasibility studies for the projects have been initiated as the authority would be developing the cruise and passenger terminal in collaboration with the Ghana Tourism Authority to boost tourism in the country.

He said GPHA is currently positioning itself to accommodate any vessel up to the next 50 years both at the Tema and Takoradi ports.