On 8^th March 2022, Meridian Port Services Limited (MPS) celebrated the International Women’s Day under the theme” Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”.

MPS is widely known as a trailblazer for deploying ground-breaking innovation and world class technology in its container terminal operations, but perhaps very little is known about its knack for creating an enabling environment for gender inclusivity since inception.

From Operations, Finance to Asset Maintenance, Information Technology and Operations, you are sure to find ladies manning complex machinery or providing vital administrative and technical support to ensure the seamless running of the company.

On the occasion on this year’s International Women’s Day, this characteristic was evident in the stories shared by selected ladies from the departments. One theme that run through the narratives was the instrumental support male colleagues provided to the ladies in the discharge of their duties.

High atop in the cabin of what can be equated to an 89-meter skyscraper, Franklina Amponsah shows dexterity as she lifts containers from the docked vessels unto waiting trucks, at first, this may not strike you until it is revealed that she is the first and only female Ship to Shore (STS) Crane Operator in MPS and certainly in the whole of Ghana.

Franklina took time to describe her experience in what is traditionally a male dominated environment of crane operations and how she broke all odds to achieve her goals. Her story provided a lot of inspiration and education that resonated with the quote for this year’s celebration #BREAK THE BIAS.

A second lady operator who handles the Rubber Tyre Gantry (RTG) Crane, Janet Eduah recounted how she braved the fear in her early days of getting up on the 147-ton machine she had never set eyes on. This sophisticated gantry crane is capable of stacking containers 7 wide and 1 over 5 high in the container yards. Indeed, Janet’s outstanding performance earned her the Top Performing Operator out of a total of 140 RTG Operators in the last quarter of 2021. Janet says with such sheer determination and a wide smile “I have told myself that I will work hard to earn another spot on the Employee Honour Board”

For Irene Asiedu, the Assistant Terminal Operations System (TOS) Manager, the most challenging time in her almost 15-year long career at MPS was during the transition of the Terminal from its former location. During this period, Irene as the Testing Manager oversaw the smooth running of all system test cases for each department before Go- Live. This system deployment was the first of its kind in the West African Sub-region. In her words” My first thoughts were, if this fails then it will all be on my head” but with the support of the team she pulled it off and Go-Live happened without hitches. Irene first joined MPS team as a university graduate and gradually rose through the ranks to become the Assistant TOS Manager.

Closely following Irene is Evelyn OseiAma Botchway, calm and collected, Evelyn moved from being an IT Support Engineer to being handed the responsibility of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Engineer, in this role, she managed the transfer and processing of all information received from shipping lines around the world in seamless manner without human interference in furtherance of the Paperless Port System. Today, Evelyn has moved on to become a TOS Application Specialist.

Management Team Members present at the gathering including the Operations Manager, Mr. Emmanuel Ohene Addo and the Chief Operations Officer, Mr. Curtiss Dakpogan expressed Management’s appreciation and praised the ladies for their contribution and efforts. Head of Legal and Compliance, Mr. Frank Ebo Brown, emphasised that the Company Code of Conduct clearly spells out the need to eschew all forms of discrimination for business sustainability. On 1^st April 2022 when MPS celebrates 15 years since the start of its operations, it will also be celebrating the resourcefulness of the women who have worked to establish Tema Port as the preferred Port in West Africa.