Ghana to build two biggest airports in Kumasi and Tamale

Boom in Ghana’s aviation industry has left Ghana’s only international airport, Kotoka International Airport existing facilities stretched to breaking point. Analysts have predicted that in two to three years, Kotoka International airport would be fully packed, and due to its close proximity to the city centre, cannot be expanded.

The government of John Mahama is planning to build two of the biggest airports in West Africa at Kumasi and Tamale and expand the existing regional airports as feeder airports for Tamale and Kumasi International Airports. According to an analyst closer to the government, the new travel hub in Tamale will span 18 sq miles, making it one of the biggest airport in Africa and would host 5 runways, whilst Kumasi would stretched out to over 15 miles.

Tamale is planned to accommodate between 40 and 60 million passengers (including the hajj) annually. The new facility will not only serve the 3 Northern regions, but countries to the north, as Tamale morphs into a mega-city. According to the planners, Tamale’s suburbs would merge into towns around it, to overtake Kumasi as Ghana’s second largest city.

According to the Ghanaian government planners, the suggested location for Kumasi airport will be to the west of the current regional airport. The government justifies this ambitious airport building program on the grounds that Ghana’s aviation market has the biggest potential for expansion in West Africa. The case for Tamale is even more compelling.

According to analysts, building an international airport at Tamale would be a mixed blessing. Deemed as one of the fastest growing cities in Africa, Tamale is moving to overtake Lagos as West Africa’s busiest aviation hub with the proposed construction of an international airport that would be able to accommodate some of the world’s biggest aircrafts such as Airbus 380 and Boeing 777 Dreamliner.

The Ghanaian has government stated that once completed, Tamale, would be connected to a proposed super “West African” 6 lane motorway and a railroad that will connect travellers to the south of the country. Expectations are high in the 3 northern regions for the new airport and money it might bring. The NDC 7 Year Development plan, almost identical to the first 7 Year Plan of Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s CPP government, calls for construction of 3 international airports at Accra, Kumasi and Tamale and major regional airports at Sekondi-Takoradi in the west of the country and Ho in the Volta Region, a 6 lane motorway and railroad connecting all the 10 regional capitals.

Kumasi and Tamale reflects Ghana’s rising economic expansion as the first country in West Africa to achieve middle income status. The two cities’ population is also growing at furious pace and it is anticipated that within a decade Tamale and Kumasi’s population will double as they attract rising tide of Ghanaians and other West Africans moving there for jobs and better life. Analysts, including this writer, have urged the Ghanaian government to consider integrated planning of water resources as part of their mega-city development planning.