The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Keta Investment, Promotion Centre (KIPC), Enyonam Apetorgbor, has recommended to the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofor-Atta to announce specific budgetary provisions for the repair, maintenance and expansion works at the Keta Port.
She said this ahead of the 2023 mid-year budget review and added that metals used in the construction of the main port, fishing harbour and the container offices did not pass passivation test to withstand the corrosive weather at the Port, a situation she said has endangered the durability of its infrastructure and the lives of workers at the port.
Worryingly, she noted that the roads connecting and leading to the port have gone bad with big portholes and manholes just few years after construction, calling for an immediate maintenance or reconstruction to forestall further deterioration.
“The heavy vehicular traffic to and from the port has put the road infrastructure in jeopardy. To ease the heavy and busy vehicular traffic, policy should not ignore multimodal transport system at the Keta Port,” Apetorgbor said.
Furthermore, she noted that the port since its 90 percent stage of completion reported last year by the Minister of Finance, has since experienced a massive rise in vessel traffic, to the extent that vessels do not have places to berth.
“A good number of them are on anchorage, 7 ..nautical miles calling to berth. This confirms the quantum of revenue being generated to complement the US$3billion IMF loan, hence the need to expand,” she said.
Describing the port as a new strategic zone of the Volta Region and country at large, she encouraged the government as well as the business community to see to the port’s expansion as a priority.
