The transport and infrastructure sector has seen significant development over recent years across all segments. Upgrades of airport runways and construction of new terminals have strategically positioned both core and regional airports to accept further international traffic. Road and port modernisation projects are projected to facilitate an increase in the import and export of goods, while landmark spending on rail expansion is set to boost freight and passenger capacity for domestic journeys and, further down the line, support connectivity to neighbouring countries.
These developments come amid a challenging macroeconomic backdrop, which has seen falling demand for imports off the back of a weaker Ghanaian cedi, which in turn has slowed trade activity and filtered down to the sector. Nonetheless, with a more optimistic economic and trade outlook, particularly via the operationalisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), as well as consistent investment inflows, the near-term outlook for transport and infrastructure in the country remains favourable.
Structure & Oversight
Ghana’s transport sector allocates distinct responsibilities for subsectors to individual ministries. The Ministry of Transport (MoT) oversees the country’s transport policies, and manages maritime affairs, while the Ministry of Aviation, the Ministry of Roads and Highways (MRH), and the Ministry of Railway Development handle policy coordination and development that are specific to their respective domains. Oversight of urban transport is more fragmented, involving collaboration among the MoT, the MRH, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the National Road Safety Authority and the Ghana Police Service.
Performance & Size
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, the total value of the transport and storage sector in 2022 was GHS10.4trn ($944bn), around 6% of the country’s total GDP. In terms of expansion, the sector grew by 6% in the 12 months leading up to the second quarter of 2023, outpacing growth in many other segments and ahead of the economy as a whole. Given the projected investment in transport and infrastructure for the rest of the decade, combined with the estimated growth in trade within as well as outside the continent, the sector’s share of GDP is set to increase in the coming years.
Urban Transport
Urban population growth over recent years has presented challenges for city planners. The decentralised provision of urban transport is exemplified in privately-run minibuses, known as “tro-tros”, which handle 60% of Accra’s public transport activity. In a bid to enhance public transport offerings, in March 2023 President Nana Akufo-Addo commissioned 100 buses from Dutch firm VDL Bus & Coach for the country’s public bus operator, Metro Mass Transit (MMTL), with 45 delivered as of July of that year. Additionally, the government of Belgium provided a grant to cover driver training, maintenance staff and technical support to MMTL scale-up operations, as well as concessionary financing for 40 buses to be delivered every year until 2027, as part of a broader effort to assist with capacity building in Ghana’s urban transport segment.
Infrastructure Investment
Ghana’s government has historically been the main driver of investment in infrastructure. Increased participation from the private sector began in earnest in 2011 with the introduction of the National Policy on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), which created the Public Investment Division to advance PPPs for infrastructure development. The enactment of the PPP Act in 2020 further solidified this effort by regulating contracts between government authorities and private entities in the provision of public infrastructure and services.
In conjunction, in 2015 the government established the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), a permanent investment vehicle with an initial equity of $345m to encourage private sector investment into the country’s infrastructure projects. The GIIF’s core goal is to use its funds to deliver high-quality and sustainable infrastructure for the country through the development of profitable projects. PPP initiatives executed by GIIF’s special purpose vehicles include expansion works on the Accra-Tema Motorway. More broadly, the fund has committed to $332m on 13 investment projects across seven sectors of the economy since its initiation.
Road
Roads act as the primary conduit for both freight and passengers within Ghana, accounting for 96% of total internal traffic. Consequently, Ghana has seen substantial growth in its road infrastructure in recent years, with further investment and projects expected. In 2020 the government declared a “year of roads”, a slogan that was repeated for 2021 and 2022 to underscore its commitment to upgrading national motorway infrastructure.
In the 2017-22 period the country saw the construction of approximately 12,000 km of roads, 33 bridges and six interchanges. This involved 1810 km of asphalt overlays, 615 km of new construction, 1820 km of road upgrades, and 6100 km of gravel and re-gravel work on unpaved networks. There are an additional seven road projects under construction set to be finished by 2024, according to the MRH. As of the end of 2022 key improvements had been made to the Eastern Corridor Road, with 366 km, or 74% of the total stretch, said to be in an improved condition. This has been an essential step in facilitating the movement of goods and people, particularly agricultural goods southward for export.
Aviation
While Ghana has been without a flag carrier since Ghana International Airlines suspended operations in 2010, a number of local airlines operate domestic and regional routes. Africa World Airlines and Passion Air offer domestic commercial passenger flights, while AngloGold Ashanti-owned carrier Gianair runs executive charter and cargo services. Air Ghana also provides cargo-only services.
Ghana has ambitions to become a regional leader in aviation, although the presence of a new carrier has yet to materialise after years of negotiation between the Ghanaian government and possible backers. The most recent iteration is Ghana Airlines, a joint venture between UK-based Zotus Group and Ashanti Airlines, with some 90% of the shares split evenly between the two companies, and the remaining 10% allocated to the government. In September 2022 this joint venture won a government tender to become the new flag carrier, with flagship routes to London and New York to be operated by Boeing 787 aircraft. However, at the end of 2023, there had been little progress in obtaining the air operators’ certificate that would allow the airline to start operations.
Passengers numbers are buoyant but international air travel has yet to rebound fully to the levels seen prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Domestic air travel had already passed its pre-pandemic peak by 2021. International air travel to and from Ghana, however, remained short of its pre-pandemic record of 2.1m passengers, recording 1.8m passengers in 2022, roughly equivalent to 2017 levels.
In terms of airport infrastructure, Accra’s Kotoka International Airport is the country’s main international gateway. It has two terminals dedicated to domestic and international services, with the third terminal operating solely for international flights. The airport is among the best connected in West Africa, offering flights to major destinations on the African continent, as well as European cities such as London, Paris and Amsterdam, US cities such as Washington, DC and New York City, and cities in the Middle East such as Dubai, Doha and Beirut.
Other airports across the country are undergoing modernisation and upgrade works. One such project is at Kumasi International Airport, serving the country’s second-largest city. The €125m expansion plans include a runway extension and a new two-story terminal building, both of which will allow the airport to receive international traffic. While the opening date is uncertain, test runs had begun in January 2023 on the new facilities. Tamale International Airport is the country’s second airport to be given international status, an occasion marked by the opening of the new terminal in August 2023.
Rail
As with many other countries, the latter half of the twentieth century in Ghana was characterised by underinvestment in rail infrastructure and the prioritisation of roads as the main means of land transport. The country’s colonial-era railway network totals some 1300 km, around 13% of which was operational as of August 2022. The Ghana Railway Master Plan (GRMP), launched in 2013 and refined in 2020, aims to revamp the country’s railway infrastructure. The plan outlines a total of 3800 km of track to be built between 2020 and 2035, a process overseen by the Ghana Railway Development Authority.
Construction on the Tema-Mpakadan Rail Line began in 2018, prior to the latest iteration of the GRMP. The railway will run 97.6 km between the Port of Tema in Greater Accra inland to Mpakadan, on Lake Volta. The line will form the first part of the 1000-km railway currently dubbed the Ghana-Burkina Faso Railway Interconnectivity Project, which will connect the coast of Ghana to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.
The next priority is the Western Rail Line, running from the Port of Takoradi to the city of Kumasi. This rail link is economically important because Takoradi Port is the main point of export for the goods that are extracted and produced in the western part of the country, such as cocoa, bauxite and manganese.
The project is being funded by Swedish Export Credit Corporation with a loan guaranteed by export credit agency EKN, the agreement with whom was signed in June 2021 for an 18-year export credit agency (ECA) facility of around €523m. This was alongside a five-year commercial loan of €75.6m arranged by UK-South African international banking firm Investec Bank and Norwegian classification society DNV to cover the down payment on the ECA, amounting to the largest-ever single investment in rail infrastructure in Ghana.
In June 2023 the African Export-Import Bank and Ghana Railway Company signed an agreement to finance the development of a 299-km stretch of the Western Rail Line. Once completed, the new rail line is expected to account for 60% of all cargo haulage between the country’s ports, its interior and neighbouring landlocked countries.
In the context of an expected uptick in intra-African trade, a key upcoming project within GRMP will be the 550-km, $3.8bn mixed-traffic Trans-ECOWAS rail project, which will run from Elubo on the border with Côte d’Ivoire to Aflao on the border with Togo. This is in line with wider rail construction ambitions seen across Africa, from Egypt to Kenya.
Ports
Ghana’s port infrastructure is central to the country’s trade ambitions, serving as the country’s principal connection to global supply chains. Exports of the country’s key foreign currency earners – hydrocarbons, agricultural produce, minerals and precious metals – occur primarily via ports. They also are the point of entry for crucial imports, from cars to foodstuffs, and serve neighbouring landlocked countries, making them a valuable element of both the national and regional economies.
Ghana’s ports saw a fall in activity following the devaluation of the Ghanaian cedi in the second quarter of 2022. In the second quarter of 2023, however, Customs house agents noted a positive uptick in port activities, indicating a recovery following sluggish traffic volumes at the beginning of the year. Data from the latest Composite Index of Economic Activity shows that approximately 57,000 containers had passed through the ports as of July 2023. Though this is a substantial decrease compared to volumes seen in July 2021, it represents a notable improvement over the roughly 40,000 containers in January 2023. This modest recovery can be attributed to the relative stability of the Ghanaian cedi and positive trends in key macroeconomic indicators.
The Port of Tema, Ghana’s largest port, covers 3.9m sq metres and accommodates an average of 1511 vessel calls annually. About 85% of Ghana’s trade passes through the Port of Tema and the Port of Takoradi, in the country’s west, with further calls from both public and private entities to position Ghana as a regional centre of maritime trade and logistics.
Funding for port-related infrastructure has come from public, private and supranational sources. In July 2023 the African Development Bank (AfDB) approved a $23m loan to local company Prime Meridian Docks to co-finance a modern floating dock ship repair facility in the Port of Takoradi. The project, with a cost of $137m, includes the construction of a 200-metre jetty, dredging and the installation of a 13,500-tonne floating dock, which will bolster maritime capacity. The AfDB has also authorised additional financing of up to $11m for future expansion.
Inland Waterways
Lake Volta is the world’s largest artificial reservoir by surface area. Stretching 400km, it covers 3.6% of the country’s total land area. While it provides much of Ghana’s electricity, it also acts as a key transport waterway in the country’s east. The Volta Lake Transport Company operates a 300-person capacity passenger vessel on the waterway, in addition to transporting 88,000 tonnes of cargo between the country’s northeast and southeast annually. Oil is transported northbound, while southbound barges carry agricultural goods, including cotton lint, cottonseed and shea nuts.
Outlook
The transport and infrastructure sector in Ghana is poised for significant growth over the coming years as a result of greater investment in a wider array of projects alongside a broader push to increase economic integration with global and regional value chains. Should the policy objectives of the government continue to bear fruit – drawing on coordinated public and private investment – and the regional and global environment remain conducive to growth, the future of this key sector looks promising.
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