Exactly 4 years following the State Visit of the Danish Queen, HM Queen Margrethe II to Ghana. West Africa’s leading container terminal Meridian Port Services Ltd (MPS) has played host to another high-profile visit from Denmark.

The visit to MPS on 25^th November 2021 was part of the Danish Prime Minister Mrs. Mette Frederiksen’s official visit to Ghana on the 60^th anniversary of diplomatic relations between both countries.

When Her Majesty visited MPS in November 2017 she observed the construction works of the Port Expansion Project. Today, the Danish Prime Minister witnessed a full-fledged container terminal with a recently completed fourth berth handling transhipment volumes.

Once again, Ghana’s trade and industrial hub became a centre of attraction when the Danish Delegation led by the Prime Minister toured the magnificent container terminal facility at MPS Terminal 3 of Tema Port.

The Prime Minister was accompanied by the opposition leader from the Liberal Party of Denmark, Mr Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, Danish Ambassador to Ghana, HE Tom Nørring, the Director General and CEO of Danish Shipping Mrs. Anne H. Steffesen, as well as some key Dignitaries of Danish/Ghanaian origin.

The delegation was received by the Management of MPS, led by the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mohamed Samara at the waterfront to observe operations by the largest and most advanced gantry cranes. The Prime Minister also inspected the vast investment display in infrastructure, technology and machinery.

Engaging in a discussion with the Prime Minister, the CEO detailed the genesis of the Port Expansion Project citing shareholder commitment as key to the realisation of the project.

“The construction of this mega port facility was completed ahead schedule and within budget and this is attributed to few factors mainly the financial commitment of the shareholders backed by the lenders and the comprehensive pre-engineering with the right design criteria implementation by competent contractors. Importantly, the immediate cash flow need was pumped as fresh equity by the shareholders to meet the obligation under the project finance agreement with IFC. “said Mr. Samara.

The Prime Minister was visibly pleased with this revelation and proceeded to ask about cargo volume direction. In response Mr. Samara stated that for this year, the growth has been on the rise with an estimated throughput of 1.2m TEUS for gateway traffic while the transhipment envisaged to reach 300,000 TEUS for this year.

Commenting about concerns of the possibility of road congestion in the port enclave, the MPS CEO remarked “Shareholders are very much interested and have started talks with the appropriate authorities to see the way forward.”