Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia cutting sod for the Debre port project
Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has cut sod for the construction of a $200 million Debre Port project and a 1,000-acre industrial park worth $250 million by LMI Holdings at Debre in the Central Gonja district of the Savannah Region.
The project involves the construction of two(2) new ports at Akwamu-Korankye in the Eastern region and Debre in the Savannah Region.
The first phase of the project will be operational within the first half of 2024 and the entire project is expected to be fully operational by 2025.
At the sod cutting ceremony, Dr. Bawumia indicated that the development of two ports will combine unimodal and inter-modal operations to ease congestion at Ghana seaports and facilitate the transit trade of Ghana’s land-locked neighbours.
According to him, it will enable imported goods to the Northern part of Ghana and other landlocked countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger and Vice versa to be transported on the Volta Lake to improve efficiency, deliver significant cost savings to traders, and transporters, reduce pressure on the roads due to the proliferation of heavy-duty vehicles and increase the patronage of the Tema Port.
He noted that an extension of the project will be the development of a 1,000-acre industrial park worth $250 million at Yapei and the focus of the park will be the development of Agro-processing to add value to Agricultural products.
“ The industrial park we are going to construct here signals business readiness serving production and manufacturing needs for mutual beneficiary businesses and industries.
Dr. Bawumia stressed that the availability of subsidized services and infrastructure such as roads, electricity, energy, water supply, and telecommunication services is a competitive sample attracting international and foreign investors as well as domestic investors.
The Vice President reiterated the government’s commitment to job creation that left people out of poverty.
He appealed to the chiefs and people of the Debre community to support the completion of the project for the betterment of the region and Ghana as a whole.
The Chief Executives of LMI, Mr. Kojo Aduhene, said the Debre Port project includes the development of a logistics park at Debre to capture a greater share of transit trade volumes in the sub-region. The logistics park will be known as the Debre Logistics Terminal(DLT). It will be an ultra-modern integrated logistics terminal consisting of a Container Service Yard(CSY), Container Freight Station(CFS), Reefer, Warehouse, Truck Parking Area, Trucker’s Facilities, Fuel Station, Commercial Complex, Freight Forwarder Offices, and facilities for the courier, telecommunication, utility services among others.
“This project will also boost regional trade and value-added manufacturing while reducing road traffic,” he said.
The LMI CEO added that the new port project will decrease in general transport cost of international cargo to importers and exporters from the middle and northern parts of Ghana including the Sahel sub-region, and enhance the export of various products including Cola nuts, Shea-butter, and cotton, advance the creation of export processing zones in the area of the port, assist in the provision of up to date infrastructure to meet current developments and technological changes in the shipping industry.
“The port will create directly a 1,000 to 1,200 direct jobs and over 10,000 indirect jobs in the area and will bring relief to the youth who normally travel far from home to looking for non-existent jobs.”
He disclosed that the government of Burkina Faso has invited LMI Holdings to construct an inland logistics port and industrial park at Koubri South of Ouagadougou.
Mr. Aduhene promised to extend pipe-borne water from their plant to the people of Debre, Mpaha, and all the surrounding villages when it is constructed and employ locals when it comes to jobs.
The Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, stated that the government’s priority is to enhance the contribution of inland water transport and safe and efficient transportation of goods and people.
The Chief of Debre, Debrewura, Suluwo Asumah thanked LMI Holdings for the Debre port project and appealed to them to ensure that the project brings the needed development to the area.
“ Our roads are bad and we hope that this project will open up the road infrastructure for the development of the area.”
FROM Eric Kombat, Debre