The Director-General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) has stated that the Port of Keta, once built, will be commercially feasible owing to the commercial dynamics of maritime commerce.
Michael Luguje was addressing during a stakeholder meeting with the Ben Kwao Group, an organisation of Keta township indigenes and ambassadors who visited the Port Authority to learn more about the Keta Port project.
He said that, just like at a market, there are numerous stalls offering the same things, yet all of them are successful despite being close to one other.
He explained that a shipping line investing its own resources in a port, such as Lomé, would still be interested in investing in other neighboring ports because they may have worked out the economics and realized that concentrating in just one port would not be the best economically because each country has a unique advantage.
“Because Ghana’s economy is far larger than Togo’s, if a shipping line is present in Lomé, they will most likely be looking at cargoes not just coming to Lomé, but also to other regions.”
“However, for Ghana, you would have the potential to have much more cargoes bound for Ghana in addition to those bound for other countries; from an economic standpoint, there are a lot of advantages that suggest Keta is viable,” he continued.
Dr Alexendar Yaw Adusei, Director in Charge of the Keta Port Project, requested interested parties to be patient while the GPHA went through the necessary processes, stating that such calculated processes are required to make such a mammoth project succeed.
“At this moment, we are open to listen to all proposals that will help make the project a success for the people of Keta as well as the Volta and Oti areas, so we need to unify as a family to get this project done,” he stated.
“This is the closest we’ve gotten to completing this project.”
Mr Komla Ofori, Project Engineer, disclosed that the overall feasibility outlay had been completed, with the environmental and social impact assessments still awaited.
Mr. John Klinogo, Vice Chairman of the Ben Kwao Group, regarded the engagement as an eye-opener in terms of comprehending the procedures that lead to port completion.
“We now know that when undertaking a project of this magnitude, time is required to do feasibility studies.” As naive as some of us may be, as soon as we heard the name Keta Port and that a director had been chosen, we knew there had to be some excavation and dredging going on. But that is not the case,” he said.