“The growth of Tema Port will further reinforce the role of Ghana as a hub for West Africa.”

At a Press Conference to announce the official opening of its new offices located in Tema, Mr Firmin recounted that Ghana’s economy was strongly growing.

He noted that his company chose Ghana because the country was not only politically and legally stable, but was business friendly, making many multinationals in West Africa to set up their regional offices here.

Mr Firmin said Ghana’s strong regional setting also offered a springboard into Africa and access to market of 350 million inhabitants. He said his organisation for the past three years had offered expertise and support in the exportation and importation of perishable items such as yam, fruits and fish to Europe and across the globe.

Mr Firmin was also pleased that the company’s enhanced presence in West Africa was showing signs of success. “Our West African Express (WAX) service to and from West Africa has been operating with extraordinary success for several years and is very well received by customers.

“With our new East Africa Service (EAS), connecting all major trades globally via our hub in Saudi Arabia with Kenya and Tanzania, we have entered another new trade. “As a result, we are tying Africa even more closely to our global network while benefiting at the same time from positive economic development in large parts of Africa,” he said.

He said Ghana was among the fastest growing economies in the Region, adding that her growth was primarily driven by the trade in gold, oil and gas products.Mr Firmin said Ghana’s ports handling capacity was likely to triple by mid-2019, from one million to three million Twenty Equivalent Unit (TEU).

“Hapag-Llyod is expecting additional growth opportunities from this capacity expansion,” he added. Hapag Llyod is one of the world’s leading shipping lines with a fleet of 219 modern container ships and total transport capacity of 1.6 million TEU. It has about 12,500 employees with over 380 offices in 125 countries.