Construction starts at Ghana’s new US$1.5 billion Container Terminal Port
Construction work began at the Port of Tema in Ghana in January 2017 on a new US$1.5 billion container terminal near the capital of Accra.
The terminal will directly create 5,000 jobs, and be operated by Meridian Port Services (MPS), which is mainly owned by two giants of the African port sector, Bolloré Transport & Logistics and APM Terminals, plus Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, and scheduled for completion by the end of 2019.
“This investment is unusual because of its size and the scope of the project,” said Peter Votkjaer Jorgensen, Head of Africa Port Investments for APM Terminals. “This is a long-term investment for us. It is an infrastructure package that will completely renew Ghana’s critical infrastructure and help the country support its expected future economic and population growth.”
The work is largely financed by the World Bank Group subsidiary International Finance Corporation (IFC), which has provided US$ 667M, and MPS shareholders, who have fronted US$ 333M.
The IFC will contribute US$ 195M from its own reserves, and has borrowed the remaining US$ 472M from the Bank of China, the Dutch development finance company FMO, South Africa’s Standard Bank, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
The principal contractor on the project is China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), which is developing four berths, a 1.4km quay, a breakwater, container yard, and new deep-water access channel.
“We have been in Ghana for nearly ten years now, operating the current Tema port together with our partner Bolloré Africa Logistics. In that time we’ve developed a good relationship with the government, so they know how we do business and that they can expect us to not only deliver a world class port, but also operate it, professionally,” said Peder Sondergaard, Head of the Africa-Middle East region for APM Terminals.
The project will triple the port’s container handling capacity to 3m TEU, or standard sized containers, a year. This will make it the biggest container port in West Africa, much bigger than any existing port in Nigeria. MPS handled 646,000 TEU at Tema in 2015 – about 80% of all containers that passed through the port.
AECOM, a USA based engineering firm is overseeing construction and providing design and procurement management services.
