President Akufo-Addo, has been assured that the $330 million Boankra Integrated Logistics Terminal project, which has been on the drawing board for some 18 years, will be completed by the first quarter of 2024.
According to the Concessionaire, Ashanti Ports Services Limited, a joint venture of Afum Quality Limited of Ghana and DSS Associates of the Republic of Korea, the project will be carried out swiftly. He expressed optimism that the eastern and western railway lines will be completed on schedule, which will further improve the viability of the Boankra inland port.
“We are working to deliver this job within the schedule date. By the end of 2023 eighty percent (80%) will be done, and, by the end of the first quarter 2024, we will finish the project.”
Concessionnaire
The Concessionaire, President Akufo-Addo noted, is committed to investing a total of $330 million for the realisation of the project. Additionally, he stated that the Concessionaire is expected to design, engineer, finance, procure, construct, operate, and maintain the project, and transfer title to the Government after a thirty (30) year period.
“It is my hope and expectation that the Concessionaire will not renege on the confidence reposed in it, and will take all the necessary actions to deliver the project on schedule and on budget.”
President Akufo-Addo
Purpose of Boankra project by government
President Akufo-Addo expressed that the 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”.
Cutting the sod for the construction of the Port in 2020, President explained that the Boankra Inland Port project was initiated to provide service to importers and exporters in the middle and northern parts of the country. He also indicated that it will act as a major conduit for the efficient transportation of transit traffic to and from neighbouring landlocked countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
The President highlighted 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 the facility.
He underscored 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 Boankra Inland Port Project has been in the pipeline since the days of His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor. In attempting to bring it into fruition, it encountered a number of challenges, a significant one being the exit of the NPP government in 2009.
Nonetheless, 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.
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