President Mahama cuts sod for 120-hectare Tema Integrated Industrial Park
President John Dramani Mahama has cut the sod for the construction of the Tema Integrated Industrial Park (TIIP), a 120-hectare world-class industrial ecosystem in the heavy industrial area of Tema
The industrial park is designed to drive manufacturing, aluminium processing, warehousing, logistics and export-oriented production.
Developed in partnership with Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms, the park is strategically located adjacent to VALCO and in close proximity to the Port of Tema, transport corridors, energy infrastructure and international shipping routes, giving it a competitive advantage that the President said would position Ghana as West Africa’s preferred destination for industrial production.
President Mahama said the sod cutting marked far more than the commencement of another infrastructure project, describing it as the beginning of a new chapter in Ghana’s economic transformation and a practical expression of the administration’s determination to move the country beyond raw material exports into competitive industrial production.
“This ceremony is far more than the commencement of another infrastructure project. It marks the beginning of a new chapter in Ghana’s economic transformation and reaffirms our determination to build an economy that produces more, exports more, creates more jobs and delivers shared prosperity,” President Mahama said.
He noted that the park formed an integral part of government’s strategy to build a complete aluminium value chain in Ghana, covering the full spectrum from bauxite mining and alumina refining through to aluminium fabrication and finished products, ending the cycle in which Ghana’s bauxite left the country unprocessed and returned as imported aluminium goods.
When completed, the park is expected to generate thousands of direct and indirect jobs, stimulate private investment and strengthen Ghana’s position as a gateway to the African Continental Free Trade Area, whose market of 1.4 billion people the President said Ghana was determined to serve as a production and export hub.
President Mahama stated that the location of the park in Tema was deliberate and fitting, describing the city as conceived by founding President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as the industrial heartbeat of Ghana, where manufacturing, maritime trade, energy and infrastructure would converge to drive national development.
He said the Tema Integrated Industrial Park was an opportunity to complete a vision that earlier generations had started but left unfinished.
He said Ghana had for too long exported raw materials and imported finished products manufactured elsewhere, pointing to bauxite that left the country and returned as aluminium, timber that was exported and came back as furniture, and cocoa that was shipped abroad and re-imported as chocolate.
“Every shipment of unprocessed raw materials represents lost jobs, lost technology, lost industrial opportunities and lost national wealth. That model can no longer sustain the aspirations of a modern and prosperous Ghana,” President Mahama echoed.
The President commended GIADEC, the Tema Development Corporation, the Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources and all institutions that worked with Arise to bring the project to the sod cutting stage, acknowledging that the journey had not been without frustrations, misunderstandings and disagreements but that all stakeholders had remained focused on the national interest.
He also commended Chief of Staff Julius Debrah, who brokered the partnership by introducing him to Arise IIP Chief Executive Gagan Gupta, whose company had transformed the industrial and export sectors of several African countries including Benin, where its Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone had positioned that country as a leading regional industrial hub.
Government committed to investing in technical education, vocational training and digital skills development to ensure Ghana’s youth were prepared for the employment opportunities the park would create, with the President saying the true measure of industrialisation was not the number of factories built but the quality of jobs created and the opportunities made available to future generations.
Richard Aniagyei, ISD
