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The Ministry of Transport is considering several private interests to create other commercial activities at the newly built James Town Fishing Harbour to raise the requisite funds to maintain the $50 million facility.
Formal proposals have yet to be considered in making the facility viable.
The sector minister, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, dropped a hint during a final inspection tour before the official commissioning by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at a date yet to be announced.
The minister and his team, as well as officials from the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), were at the site to confirm the readiness of the harbour before the completion certificate was signed.
The completion certificate is expected to be signed by the GPHA and the Chinese construction firm, CRCC Harbour and Channel Engineering Bureau Group Limited, for onward submission to the minister and the President.
Currently, the GPHA is conducting "a facility testing exercise" likely to be completed by the end of August before the completion certificate is signed.
Mr Asiamah said the government was committed to improving port infrastructure across the country to develop the fishing industry. He said the James Town Fishing Harbour was only one of many, including the Cape Coast Landing Site, that the government was providing.
The Jamestown Fishing Harbour Project, which started on August 20, 2020, with works undertaken by a Chinese marine engineering company, CRCC Harbour and Channel Engineering Bureau Group Limited, has been completed after four years.
It is now awaiting formal handover to the government.
The complex has an administration block made up of offices, trading markets, cold storage, processing areas, commercial areas, and other production and supporting facilities, as well as a creche (which makes up 12,644.11 cubic metres).
When it becomes operational, it is expected to boost Ghana’s fishing industry with 26,000 metric tonnes of fish traded annually while more than 1,000 local fishermen can ply their trade and berth more than 400 fishing vessels in the port.
