Having derived its name from an old fishing village called Torman, the construction of the Tema Port began in the 1950s after Ghana gained independence from British control.
Though the idea of its construction was initially proposed by the British colony, its planning and implementation began after Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, took over the helm of affairs as Ghana’s first President.
The project was led by an award-winning city planner and first Ghanaian architect, Theodore S. Clerk.
Its construction was completed and commissioned in 1962 and it is now arguably the largest port on the Eastern coast of Ghana.
Stones for the construction of the port were quarried from the hills at the Shai Hills Forest Reserve. This was however taken from the site before it was gazetted and made a reserve by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
Speaking on the People & Places show on GhanaWeb, Assistant Manager of Shai Hills, Ishmael Otoo explained that a huge part of what has now become a reserve was full of rocks in a vast hilly area.
According to him, Dr. Nkrumah after gaining independence for Ghana decided, together with architects and engineers, to quarry stones from the area to construct the Tema port.
After this however he noted, the place was gazetted to prevent encrochers and illegal stone quarrying companies from exploiting the place.
“All this place was part of the hill, but it was chopped off in the early 1960s by the first president of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah,” he told host Wonder Ami Hagan.
“Ghana became an independent country in 1957, and this place became a forest reserve in 1962 so before he gazetted this place, he took the stones from here to build the Tema port. There was a rail line where it links from here to Tema but it was collapsed.
When you go inside, you’ll see some of the poles and bars that they used for the quarry. Afterward, he gazetted this place to become a reserve, meaning that no one can take anything from here,” he continued.
The Tema port was constructed majorly to provide cargo handling services to the surrounding region and is spread across 3.9 million square metres.
The harbour serves both as a loading and unloading port for goods. It also serves as a major transit point for goods from landlocked countries to the north of Ghana.
The Tema port also handles trade for industrial and commercial companies that import and export various goods such as petroleum, cement, food, metals, textiles.
