By Evelyn ARTHUR
The Minister for Transport, Kweku Ofori Asiamah, is expected to sign the acceptance certificate of completion for Jamestown Fishing Port soon following what was his conclusive official tour of the completed facility last Monday.
The Minister, after a brief summary by contractors from the China Railway Construction Corporation, jointly inspected the facility with the Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy, Li Yaohong, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Transport, Mabel Sagoe, the Director General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, Michael Luguje, and his management team.
The Sector Minister expressed satisfaction for the 50-million-dollar fishing port project, thanking the Government of China for the aid, GPHA for engineering supervision, and all stakeholders who contributed to this project.
“We are here based on the advice from GPHA, who are the engineering supervisors. Let me thank them for the good job they have done, and the contractor also for having, in spite of all the difficulties, completed the construction of this project.
Today is not the commission; we are coming for the final inspection, and like the counsellor said, after that, based on the advice of GPHA, I may then sign the certificate and then go to the President to inform him about the completion of the project so that he would do the honor of commissioning it,” he said.
This project, along with 11 other fishing ports and landing sites being developed along the coast of Ghana to promote the sustainability of Ghana’s fisheries sector, is the brainchild of President Nana Akufo-Addo and his government.
“The government is very much committed to the infrastructure development of fishing activities. When we took over, the President’s position was that the conditions with which our fishing folks were working were not present, so we needed to improve the infrastructure that they work with,” he added.
The Jamestown Fishing Project is the largest project China has donated in recent years, according to Li Yaohong, the Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Ghana, underscoring his nation’s strong ties with Ghana.
“I hope the honourable Minister would sign the acceptance certificate of this project with the China Ambassador to Ghana and to earliest convenience I hope the Ghanaian government can make full use of this facility to develop fisheries and benefit the Ghanaian people,” he stated.
The Director General of GPHA, Michael Luguje, added his remarks.
“Today is just a joint inspection conducted by the Minister for Transport. Like he indicated, other technical processes will be completed, certificate will be signed and then the Minister will then work with the Office of the President to fix the date for the official commissioning of the project. We are satisfied that they did a good job from the technical point of view,” he expressed.
The Jamestown Fishing sits on 60,000 square meters of land and has been optimized with modern facilities such as an ice-making plant that can produce 60 tons per day on average, a cold store that can store 200 tons of fish, two workshops, a fish market that can accommodate 200 sellers per day, ancillary stalls, an administration block, and a crèche for children.
