The First phase of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) privatisation programme under which cargo handling and stevedoring services would go wholly to the private sector would start next month.

Mr Ben Owusu-Mensah, Director-General of the GPHA, who announced this at Tema on Monday, said a number of local and foreign companies interested in the policy have already applied to the Ministry of Transport and Communication (MOTC).

He was briefing 20 newly appointed ambassadors, who were on a nation-wide tour for a proper insight into various sectors of the Ghanaian economy to enable them to market Ghana properly to attract foreign investors when they go to their postings.

Mr Owusu-Mensah said the second phase of the programme, under which the port would be fully privatised would start in July next year to be completed by December, the same year.

He said the GPHA would then become mainly a landlord with more regulatory functions and companies given licence to operate would pay royalties to the authority. The GPHA may also enter into joint ventures with some of the companies and its cargo handling equipment handed over to them.

He said workers should not expect any labour losses since companies licensed to work would be expected to absorb them.

Mr Owusu-Mensah said the GPHA wants to link the port to the country's railway system and urged investors to consider reviving the railway line from Accra to Tema and also constructing a new one from Tema to Akosombo.

The railway line to Akosombo is expected to help in the transhipment of cargo from Tema through the Volta Lake to landlocked countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger that now prefer to send their shipments through the Tema Port.

Mr Nestor Galley, Director of the Tema Port, said the port was currently being dredged to a depth of between 11.5 metres and 12.5 metres to enable it accommodate bigger vessels.

Another berth, which is 375 metres long, would be extended to 575 metres to enable it to accommodate longer vessels. This would boost business at the port where some shipping lines are using for transhipment of cargo from bigger ships into smaller ones for their final destinations.

Mr Galley said as at June, Tema Port recorded 111,000 metric tonnes of transit cargo as compared to 140,000 tonnes for the whole of last year and this was expected to go higher by the end of this year. Last year, the port recorded 6.2 million tonnes of cargo and this also was expected to increase by the end of this year looking at current statistics.