Lawyer Kwame Gyan, Chairman and Director of IBISTEK Limited “a wholly Ghanaian company” says, the company is looking for possible ways ofpartnering the United Kingdom(UK) firms in developing the water front development project at the Takoradi Port.
“We are looking at the possibilities of British firms partnering with us in the construction and more particularly in the supply of equipment’sfor the facility” he said.
The water front development project forms part of a container and multi-purpose terminal which will have a capacity of handling one million Twenty Equivalent Units (TEU) containers in line with the Takoradi Port’s growth of cargo handling.
Lawyer Gyan was speaking in an interview with the B&FT after the British Trade Envoy to Ghana, Adams Afriyie andBritish High Commissioner to Ghana Iain Walker paid a familiarization tour at the Takoradi Container Terminal (TACOTEL) to familiarize themselves with on-going activities as well as explore business opportunities that are abound.
He explained that the on-dock operationsrequire much heavier equipment for the facility; we are talking about much heavier equipment’s such as mobile havoc cranes, ship to shore cranes, gantry cranes among others.
Also, he said IBISTEK is looking forward to the possibility of getting UK financial support throughUnited Kingdom Fund (UKF) when the equipment is sourced from the UK,is expected to minimize the company’s exposure in terms of fund raising opportunities.
“We are looking forward for a very fruitful partnership, and for us it is a privileged to host the British High Commissioner to Ghana and the British Trade Envoy to Ghana, for us, it is an endorsement and a recognition that at IBISTEK-TACOTEL, we are making some impact in this container business” he added.
He said IBISTEK-TACOTEL have a concession “we have invested so much in this facility and have already gone far with the fundraising effort andthe technical works for the water front development; so, we are not coming into this partnership as an underdog, we are coming in as equal participant who have something to offer”.
He explained that the British will not just partner with a company which has nothing to offer, they know we have come comparative advantage and they want to leverage on their comparative advantage and that is the essence of the partnership, “they want to merge with us to put together collective slams and deliver on the project”.
He explained that there is the possibility of the UK companies participating in the construction, “we are looking at different levels of the construction, there is one of the construction which is the marine-civil work of which we do not have the local capacity to deliver on that but the non- marine civil works which involves grand preparation, pavement, walls, electrical system and light will be done by them”.
By Juliet Aguiar Dugbartey, Takoradi l thebftonline.com l Ghana
