Boankra Inland Port Project Bouncing Back Soon – Alan Kyeremateng Assures
Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kwadwo Kyeremateng has revealed that the government would in the coming months cut the sod for the reconstruction of the abandoned Boankra Inland Port Project in the Ashanti region.
The Boankra Inland Port Project which begun under the erstwhile administration of President John Agyekum Kuffour stalled after his ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) lost the 2008 general elections and has since not received any major attention.
The major infrastructure was supposed to link the ports of Tema and Takoradi to the inner parts of Ghana and its landlocked neighbours of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger; it was expected “to be a free port that would combine unimodal and inter-modal operations aimed at easing congestion at Ghana’s seaports thus facilitating the transit trade of Ghana’s land-locked neighbours”, the Ghana Shippers Authority has said on its website.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Yaw Nimako on Kumasi-based FM on Thursday morning, Mr Alan Kyeremateng said all the necessary processes to revamp the project have been completed and very soon, a sod-cutting ceremony would be held to make way for the redevelopment of the project under an entirely new framework.
He said the redesigned project would come with an adjunct industrial city with factories to support the inland port.
Hon Alan Kyeremateng also said the Ashanti region alone is host to forty-four (44) out of the 232 projects under the One District One Factory Initiative; 14 have been completed and running, 11 under construction and the rest under a special arrangement for farmer-owned and youth-owned factories.