Inland Port to serve the Northern sector

Sunyani, Dec 15, GNA- The inland port at Boankra, near Ejisu in the Ashanti Region, will help solve shipment problems in the northern sector of the country, Mr. Kofi Mbiah, Chief Executive of Ghana Shippers' Council, has said.

He said the Council is in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and the President's Special Initiatives (PSIs) to ensure the establishment of the port that would also cater for Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina-Faso, Mali, Niger, among others.

Mr. Mbiah was addressing an end-of-year get-together of members of the Brong-Ahafo Shippers' Committee (BASC) and other stakeholders in the industry at the weekend in Sunyani.

''The administrative practice whereby shippers in Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions have to travel to either Tema or Takoradi to transact business has continued to be a major problem and the inland port will be a big relief for them,'' he said.

Mr Mbiah said the construction of the administrative block of the inland port is in progress and would be completed by next year. The Chief Executive commended members of BASC for the "tremendous strides" made since its formation three years ago.

He said the 25-year-old Council had been at the forefront of solving problems of Ghanaian shippers through the use of its up-to-date information database on shipping and Internet connections to provide ready solutions to members' shipment problems.

The Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, Nana Kwadwo Seinti, said the NPP government "is a government that listens to problems" and advised shippers in the region to exploit the opportunities provided by the government's "Golden Age of Business" to maximize output.