President John Dramani Mahama has cut the sod for the Tema Integrated Industrial Park (TIIP), a port-integrated manufacturing enclave billed as the centrepiece of government's drive to turn Ghana from a raw-material exporter into a regional industrial hub.
The ceremony, held in the heavy industrial area of Tema beside the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) smelter, formally launches a project being delivered by Tema Integrated Industrial Parks Company Limited (TIIPco), a joint venture between TDC Ghana Limited, the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) and Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms (Arise IIP), the pan-African industrial developer behind similar parks in Benin, Togo and Gabon.
The Minister of Works, Housing and Water Resources, Kenneth Gilbert Adjei, and the Minister of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, were both in attendance, alongside members of the diplomatic corps, the boards of GIADEC, TDC and Arise IIP, and captains of industry.
Flooding
President Mahama could not begin his address without first reflecting on the flooding that struck the southern part of the country between June 28 and June 29, when an estimated 169 millimetres of rain fell within 24 hours, submerging parts of Accra, Winneba and other coastal communities.
He said some citizens remained unaccounted for as of the time, and while government was not presuming any loss of life at this stage, it remained concerned for those still missing.
He extended his sympathies to families who had lost property, sustained injuries or were still searching for loved ones.
Turning to the main business of the day, the President traced the project's origins to a chance introduction by the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, who had met Arise IIP's Chief Executive Officer, Gagan Gupta, during a brief visit to Ghana.
Mr Gupta shared the story of Arise's industrial parks elsewhere on the continent and proposed reviving an idea that had previously stalled in Ghana.
A government delegation led by Mr Debrah subsequently toured the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone in Benin and returned, in the President's words, highly impressed by its transformation of that country's value-addition and export sectors.
That visit set in motion the technical work that has culminated in the sodcutting, led by GIADEC, TDC and the Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources.
President Mahama acknowledged that the journey to this point had not been smooth, citing frustrations, misunderstandings and disagreements among stakeholders along the way, but said dialogue and a shared focus on the national interest had kept the project on track.
Operations
Under the arrangement, Arise IIP will lead technical services, infrastructure design, construction and operations, drawing on its experience developing similar platforms elsewhere in Africa.
The site's location next to VALCO and close to the Port of Tema and major transport corridors is expected to anchor a complete aluminium value chain stretching from bauxite mining and alumina refining to fabrication and finished products.
The park's first major tenant has already been secured. Earlier this month, GIADEC signed a €300m (about $341.7m) agreement with Italian industrial firm, Danieli, to build an aluminium foil rolling mill and an associated Centre of Excellence within the enclave.
The facility is expected to process local raw materials into between 40,000 and 45,000 metric tonnes of aluminium foil annually for pharmaceutical, packaging and industrial markets.
Government projects that the wider park will generate more than 4,000 direct jobs and stimulate upstream and downstream industrial clusters in Tema, alongside continued investment in technical and vocational training to prepare the workforce required.
President Mahama situated the project within Tema's founding purpose as the industrial heartbeat envisioned by Ghana's first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, saying the city was conceived as a place where manufacturing, maritime trade, energy and infrastructure would converge, but that much of that original vision remained unfinished.
He cited the country's continued export of bauxite, timber and cocoa in raw form, only to re-import them as aluminium products, furniture and chocolate, as evidence of lost jobs, technology and national wealth that industrialisation under the 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development Programme is meant to reverse.
“Industrialisation is no longer an option. It is an economic necessity,” the President said.
Industry ready
Earlier, in remarks ahead of the President's address, Mrs Ofosu-Adjare described the project being commissioned as 83.5 hectares of execution-ready, port-integrated industrial space located seven kilometres from Tema Port, carved out as a zone within the broader 2,000-hectare Tema Industrial Area, with clear state land title, ready utilities and validated tenant demand already in place.
She told the gathering that Tema and Takoradi handled roughly 85 per cent of Ghana's trade, yet much of what passed through those ports remained raw or semi-processed, citing 2023 import figures of more than $2 billion in machinery, about $1.5 billion in chemicals, nearly $875 million in automotive components and over $350 million in pharmaceuticals as evidence of sectors Ghana could manufacture competitively rather than import.
