Accra, Ghana, September 18, 2008 - Ghana’s position as a trade and investment hub in West Africa received a new boost September 5, with the unveiling by Vice President Alhaji Alui Mahama and visiting World Bank President Robert Zoellick of a new cold chain terminal for the refrigeration of fruit and vegetable exports at the port of Tema.
Fresh pineapples ready for export
The ceremony was part of a tour of World Bank Group funded projects by Zoellick, who was in Ghana for the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. The Bank, through its International Development Association (IDA) has also funded an investment zone near the Tema Port that hosts over 15 factories, a public-private partnership in customs services, and a transit cargo electronic tracking system.
IDA has also financed ports infrastructure such as roads and container deveining areas, which have contributed significantly to decongestion. These efforts have helped the Tema Port increase containerized traffic flow from 1,472,946 tons in 1998 to 4,098,367 tons in 2006, and transit traffic from 29,060 tons in 1998 to 1,126,444 in 2006. Processing and turnaround time for ships at the port has also been reduced from 2-3 weeks to 2-3 days.
An aerial view of the Tema Harbor
Speaking during the occasion, Vice President Mahama declared that Ghana has been working hard to put in place all the necessary facilities and services to ensure that its ambition to become the gateway of West Africa becomes a reality. Ghana, he said, is open for business and ready to compete.
Mr. Zoellick underscored the need for countries such as Ghana to take advantage of global markets to grow and create good jobs. He made the connection to current developments in the global market and said Ghana should take advantage of higher food prices to expand agricultural production substantially, both for the internal market, and for export.
Mr. Zoellick highlighted the benefits of diversifying agricultural exports and seeking new opportunities provided by high value exports to world supermarkets. The new shed, he said, allows Ghana to increase its export of horticulture 2 to 3-fold and to create 20,000 jobs.
Accompanied by the Bank’s Vice President for the Africa Region Obiageli Ezekwesili, Country Director Ishac Diwan, International Finance Corporation Country Manager for Ghana Imoni Akpofure, and other senior members of the Ghanaian government, Mr. Zoellick also stopped at the starting point of the rehabilitated regional highway to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – an endeavor to which multiple donors contributed.
The Tema–Bamako road corridor development project, through which the highway was improved, was approved by the Bank’s Board in June 2008, involves seven donors and is considered best practice in donor harmonization efforts. The project aims to reduce travel time by 20 percent, significantly improve road conditions, and reduce the number of road accident fatalities by 20 percent. The rehabilitation of the Abidjan-Lagos corridor, which passes through Tema, is planned to start next year. Both are ECOWAS and WAEMU projects that seek to reduce physical and non physical barriers to free movement of people and goods on the main corridor of the sub-region as a way of better integrating its economies
A map showing the Tema-Bamako Corridor
A group of cross-country truckers, who assembled to greet Mr. Zoellick at their parking lot, expressed delight about the new electronic tracking system of trucks in transit because of the turn-around time they gain at the port. They expressed concerns about security on the highways and tasked Mr. Zoellick with helping find a solution.
As part of his tour, President Zoellick and his team visited an International Finance Corporation-supported leasing facility managed by Odart Stevedoring Company Ltd. Ghana. The company leased two ridge stackers, valued at €720,000.00, from Horizon Finance & Leasing Company Ltd. Ghana, a beneficiary of IFC's leasing program. Odart was able to pay off the cost of the equipment within 18 months.
The visit to the Tema Port underscores the centrality of trade facilitation in Ghana’s development process and the potential role of the African private sector in job creation. The World Bank Group was keen, its president said, to support initiatives to improve regional trade and promote better growth in the enclave countries, create larger markets in Africa, and generate more growth opportunities through local production for larger markets.
In recent years Ghana has been rated in the World Bank-IFC Doing Business report as a good performer in Africa and the best place overall to do business in West Africa. Ghana continues to strive for private sector-led accelerated growth as the primary mechanism to reduce poverty and move to middle income status within the next decade. Export-led growth objectives are being pursued through, among other reforms, a modern trade facilitation regime. The exports sector has seen sturdy growth, with income from non-traditional exports growing from about US$200 million, to about US$1.0 billion over the past decade.
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