Accra, April 4, GNA – Dr Donald Agumenu, former Special Aide to late President Jerry John Rawlings, has asked the Government to consider the establishment of a container terminal at the Akanu Border at Dzodze-Penyi in the Volta Region to help create jobs and generate revenue for national development.
He said the volume of trade through the Border linking Togo-Benin-Nigeria made it an important economic hotspot that required the needed attention and urged the governments of Ghana and Togo to collaborate and work towards such a facility for immense economic benefit to both countries.
Dr Agumenu said the container terminal would help to decongest the Lome Port and added that: “The investment that has been done by the government of Ghana in the trans-ECOWAS highway road infrastructure will pay more dividends to the two neighbouring countries and ECOWAS at large if we situate a container terminal there.
“The local economy of Ketu North and the Volta Region will immediately be revolutionised as jobs will be created and revenue will increase,” he said.
A container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transhipped between different transport vehicles for onward transportation. Full complement of port services, including customs inspection, payment of taxes/duties and goods clearance can legally take place at container terminals.
Monitoring reports suggest that large volumes of imported goods pass through the Lome Port in Togo for onward transit via road to Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.
The Akanu Border in Dzodze-Penyi has over the years become a conduit for long haulage trucks.
Dr Agumenu said given the ramping effects of global economic crises and the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government needed to be very creative in providing jobs, raising revenue and sustaining economic growth.
He said the rate of unemployment in the Volta Region was becoming alarming and that the situation could worsen if strategic measures were not put in place to create opportunities for the youth.
“With Ghana now hosting the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfTCA), a deliberate pace setter strategic investment in a container terminal at the Akanu Border will help harmonise and increase trade in West Africa,” Dr Agumenu noted.
He added that: “This container terminal will definitely offer our people a hope for a meaningful life and cut down on the human exodus to Accra and galamsey communities for non-existent better livelihood.”
GNA