A delegation from Bolloré Transport and Logistics, APM Terminals and Meridian Port Services Ltd pointed this out on Thursday when they paid a courtesy call on President Akufo-Addo to congratulate him on his election to the high office of President.

“We applaud you for taking Ghana into a new era of business development,” Mr Cyrille Bolloré, Chairman of Bolloré Transport and Logistics, who led the delegation, told President Akufo-Addo.

He told the President that Bolloré Ports, a subsidiary of Bolloré Transport and Logistics, is the number one port infrastructure operator in Africa and is also the leading container terminal management company on the continent.

Together with APM Terminals and Meridian Port Services Ltd, he indicated that the financing required to execute the Tema Port Expansion Project had been secured, and the project was currently ongoing.

He noted that the expansion of the Tema port would improve Ghana’s trade competiveness, facilitate trade growth and improve revenue mobilisation. The project, he added, would allow Tema Port to accommodate some of the world’s largest container ships, and improve cargo handling services and capacity.

Mr Bolloré said that on completion, the project would enhance the position of the Tema Port as the leading maritime hub in the region.Mohammed Samara, Chief Executive Officer of Meridian Port Services told the President that the port expansion project was within the GPHA Master Plan for the development of Tema Port, under the Concession Agreement that was granted in 2004.

In addition to the expansion project, Mohammed Samara indicated that, together with Bolloré Transport and Logistics and APM Terminals, a project to upgrade the Accra-Tema Motorway into a six-lane modern highway along with improved connecting arterial roads, would be undertaken. This project, he added, would be financed solely with funds from the shareholders.

On his part, President Akufo-Addo thanked the group for the courtesy of their visit and stated that the major preoccupation of his government is the creation of a good business climate for businesses to thrive.

He was, thus, pleased that companies like Bolloré Transport and Logistics, APM Terminals and Meridian Port Services Limited have thought of Ghana as the place to do business and invest.  With the port expansion project having commenced in the last few months of the tenure of the previous government, President Akufo-Addo assured that his government, having convinced itself of its viability and immense benefits of the project for the economy, would not abrogate the contract.

“If we can convince more and more companies like yours to invest in our country, then we can thrive as a nation. Be assured that the presence of a new government does not mean the abrogation of genuine contracts entered into by the previous government. You have my support to proceed,” he added.