Ghana ports experiencing a decline in traffic to Lomé port in Togo

In particular, the association raised concerns about the drop in port traffic from the Tema Port to the Lomé Port in Togo. While Tema Port has experienced an increase in traffic, its growth rate has been slower compared to Lomé's Port, which has seen a remarkable rise from 300,000 containers annually in the early 2000s to 1.5 million containers presently. In contrast, Ghana’s Tema Port has progressed from a similar level in the early 2000s to handling 1.2 million containers today.

Dr. George vanDyck, the principal researcher focusing on governance, port clusters, and competitiveness within the Tema Ports as part of the Port Effectiveness and Public-Private Cooperation for Competitiveness (PEPP II) project, emphasized the necessity for Ghana to establish a conducive business environment to compete effectively with Togo.

The PEPP II project, backed by the Danish Foreign Ministry, seeks to furnish policymakers with empirical data to inform decision-making processes aimed at advancing the blue economy and improving port efficacy.

"Lomé, within the early 2000s, was doing 2 to 300,00 TU, which is 2 to 300,000 thousand containers per annum. Now they are doing 1.5 million. Ghana which was quite predominant in the early 2000s is now doing 1.2 million, it’s going up but not as fast as Togo is going up. So there's a lot of competition. What do we have to do? People are saying we are leaving trade to Togo, yes, it's about creating an enabling business environment."

Dr. Abena Animwaa Yeboah-Banin, the Communication Department Head at the University of Ghana, elucidated that the initiative will enable a broader spectrum of researchers to contribute to the maritime sector and the Blue Economy.

"It now allows a wider pool of researchers to take an interest in the maritime world, the Blue Economy. A lot more researchers than were represented in the PEPP project. For instance, now it becomes possible for people from engineering, fisheries, and physics, whose works may have something to tell the Blue Economy to take an interest and join the network so that there's a bigger pool of knowledge being produced about the Blue Economy that can feed into policy and also work in industries.:

Earlier, the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) raised concerns over the decline in traffic at the ports.

The drop in port traffic it said is of particular concern given the current financial constraints faced by the government. With the country already grappling with a widening budget deficit and high levels of public debt, any further decline in revenue generation could potentially deepen the economic challenges facing the country.