Bollore Africa Logistics Ghana Limited is to invest about US$15 million in infrastructural upgrading at the Tema Port as part of efforts aimed at expanding facilities there to meet rising demand.
The investment will go into the purchase and installment of cranes, reach-stackers, ship to shore cranes, among others, and will be done through its local partners, Meridian Port Services (MPS), a joint venture between Bollore and the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA).
MPS has since 2007 been managing the container terminal at the Tema Port and has together with its partners invested about US$100 million into the container terminal after taking over its operations from the GPHA.
“We want to expand our logistics business and part of that plan is to expand the infrastructure at the container terminal which we manage in the Tema Port,” the outgoing Managing Director of Bollore Africa Logistics Ghana, Mr Jason Reynard, told the Daily Graphic in Accra.
He gave the interview at a send-off and welcoming party in honour of him and the incoming managing director, Mr Bernard de Buor. The occasion was also used to announce the change in name from the initial SDV Ghana Limited to Bollore Africa Logistics Ghana following the realignment of the local subsidiary, SDV, with its global transporting business, the Bollore Group, headquartered in France.
Given that cargo throughput (total volumes of goods entering and leaving the port) at the Tema Port is continuously on the rise, Mr Reynard underscored the need to expand facilities there urgently and must be taken with all seriousness.
“We (the port authorities and stakeholders) need to know where we are going and have a vision on the future development of the port. That is key and Bollore Africa Logistics Ghana has been concerned,” he said.
The Tema Port, one of the two sea ports in the country, handles about 70 per cent of total maritime freight to and from the country. There has been increasing pressure on the facilities there as cargo throughput continues to rise and that has led to delays in loading, offloading and cargo clearance.
To help close the infrastructure deficits and reduce handling challenges, the outgoing MD said Bollore and its local partner, MPS, had resolved to expand its equipment base. “Our first consignment of five cranes should arrive by June,” he disclosed. MPS, he said, handled about 750,000 containers at the port last year and the target was to increase that to 800,000 containers this year.
Mr Reynard is going to head the group's operations in Kenya. The incoming MD, Mr de Buor, and the Chairman of the Antrak Group, Alhaji Asoma Banda, commended the outgoing MD and pledged to continue from where he left off. Bollore Africa Logistics Ghana is part of the Antrak Group which was founded by Alhaji Banda.
Source: Graphic Business
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