| Tema city and port lies in
southeastern Ghana along the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Ocean), 18 miles
(29 km) east of Accra. Tema Port is the biggest of two sea ports in
Ghana. It has water-enclosed area of 1.7 million square meters and a
total land area of 3.9 million square meters.
The Port of Tema is more than a mere
loading or unloading place for goods. It is also a traffic junction,
where goods are transshipped and transit cargo destined for the
hinterlands/landlocked countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are
handled.
It is equally a port with a wide range
of industrial and commercial companies, producing or handling among
others petroleum products, cement, food items, iron and steel, aluminium
products and textiles.
Opened formally in 1962, Tema's harbour
encloses 410 acres (166 hectares) of sea and is Africa's largest
man-made harbour. There are 3 miles (5 km) of breakwaters, 12 deepwater
berths, an oil-tanker berth, and a dockyard, warehouses, and transit
sheds.
The port's container yard is capable of
holding over 8,000 TEU's at any given time. There are 290 reefer points
available. A separate fishing harbour with cold-storage and marketing
facilities is east of the lee breakwater.
The government acquired 64 square miles
(166 square km) of land north of the harbour and entrusted it to the
Tema Development Corporation (1952). The “New Town” that was
subsequently built on the site was planned as an industrial-residential
complex. There was a large influx of population beginning in the 1960s
owing to the new employment opportunities, but the corporation was
unable to construct housing and provide other services to meet the needs
of this migration. The result was the creation near Tema in an area
called Ashiaman.
Tema port was commissioned in 1962. The
harbour which was a monumental legacy of the late Osagyefo Dr Kwame
Nkrumah, President of the First Republic, who was anxious to see rapid
industrialization of the country.
Most of the country’s chief export,
cacao, is shipped from Tema. Manufactures include aluminium, steel,
refined petroleum, soap, processed fish, chocolate, textiles, cement,
and chemicals.
Tema port handled 6.3 million tones of
cargo in 2000, nearly three quarters of total sea-borne trade for Ghana,
whilst the export was little over half of sea-borne exports. For 2001
this figure dropped slightly to 6.14 million tonnes. Of this 5.07
million tonne was imports and 783,000 tonne exports and 283,000 tonne
was transit cargo. |
