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The Vice President of Ghana, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has cut sod for the $200 million multimodal transport corridor, the Trans-Volta Logistics Corridor Project to transport containers as well as bulking cargo from the Port of Tema to Ouagadougou via Volta Lake.
The project, expected to commence next year will involve the construction of two new ports at Akwamu-Korankye in the Eastern Region (the Southern arm of the project) and at Debre in the Savannah Region of Ghana.
According to the vice president, the development of the ports will combine unimodal and inter-modal operations to ease congestion at Ghana seaports and thus facilitate the transit trade of Ghana’s land-locked neighbours.
He added that, after the project, the imported goods to the Northern part of Ghana and other landlocked countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger and vice versa would be transported on the Volta lake to improve efficiency, and also to deliver significant cost savings to traders and transporters.
Dr Bawumia assured that “these two projects will address millions of issues that continue to plague the movement of goods in Ghana and to our neighbours in the sub-region.”
On the other hand, Mr Kojo Aduhene, the CEO of LMI holdings said that the RORO phase of the project would be operational within the first half of the year 2024 while the entire project will be expected to be operationalized by 2025.
In his statement, he revealed that there would be an extension of a 1000-acre industrial park, which will focus on the Afro-Processing development to add value to agricultural products at Yapei.
Mr Kojo Aduhene then concluded that the port is expected to create about 2,200 direct jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs to enhance job opportunities for the youth.
The occasion was however colourfully graced by Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, Ghana Ports and Harbor Authority Representative, Savannah Regional Minster, Saeed Jibril, and Traditional leaders as well.