The concessionaire of the $330 million Boankra Integrated Logistics Terminal project, referred to as the Boankra Inland Port, Ashanti Ports Services Limited (APSL), says the project will be completed by the first quarter of 2024.
“We are working to deliver this job within the scheduled date. By the end of 2023, 80 percent will be done, and, by the end of the first quarter 2024, we will finish the project,” the Chief Executive Officer of APSL, Isaac Afum, assured President Nana Akufo-Addo when he visited the site yesterday.
The concessionaire is a joint venture between Afum Quality Limited of Ghana and DSS Associates of the Republic of Korea. The idea of the project had been in the pipeline for some 18 years.
In November 2020, President Akufo-Addo cut sod for the construction of the port, saying the project had been initiated to provide service to importers and exporters in the middle and northern parts of the country, and also to act as a major conduit for the efficient transportation of transit traffic to and from our neighbouring landlocked countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
After completion of the terminal, it will be fitted with an inland clearance depot, customs bonded and unbonded estates, commercial areas such as banks, offices, and trading facilities, vehicle parking areas, light industrial areas, and an administration complex.
The project will also offer significant employment opportunities for both skilled and unskilled labour during the two phases of construction and operation. Beyond the creation of jobs, there are other ancillary small and medium-scale businesses that will be located within the enclave to support the operations of the Terminal.
Economic transformation
“It is noteworthy that the transformation of the Ghanaian economy, from a raw material producing and exporting one to an industrialised one, will be given a huge impetus with the coming on-stream of this facility. Government’s commitment to establishing firmly the economy of Ghana on a solid path of industrialisation, with the view to delivering a vision of self-reliance, development and prosperity for all, is unwavering,” the President said.
The concessionaire is expected to design, engineer, finance, procure, construct, operate, and maintain the project, and transfer the title to the government after a 30-year period.
One of the success stories of the African economic integration agenda is the coming into force of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
The objective of the AfCFTA is to promote trade among African countries, and the President has stressed that “this will be buoyed by the presence of an effective and efficient transport system, especially as Ghana is playing host to the Secretariat”.
President Akufo-Addo is hopeful that “this project and other similar infrastructure projects, such as the development of the Keta Port, the Tema-Akosombo Railway Line, and the ongoing port expansion projects at Tema and Takoradi Ports, would make a positive contribution in ensuring that Ghana derives maximum benefits from the AfCFTA.”
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