Tema is a city located on the coast of Ghana, right by the Atlantic Ocean, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) east of Accra, the capital city of Ghana. As of 2013, Tema was one of the biggest cities in Ghana, with about 161,612 people living there. The Greenwich Meridian, which is the 0-degree longitude line, passes right through the city. Tema is often called the "Harbour City" because it has Ghana's largest seaport.
Tema was built on the site of a small fishing village called Torman. The name "Tema" comes from "Torman." In 1952, the government bought 166 square kilometers (64 square miles) of land north of the harbor. This land was given to the Tema Development Corporation to build new industrial and living areas. The main Tema Township and the Tema Harbour officially opened in 1962. Over the next few years, Tema became a major industrial center in Ghana. It had a well-planned road system with nice landscaping and street lights. A lot of people started moving to Tema in the 1960s because there were many job opportunities.
Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, started the project. After independence, under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah, the construction of the harbour began in the 1950s with planning led by the award-winning city planner and the first Ghanaian architect, Theodore S. Clerk, helped design Tema. Today, it is a major center for trade, with an oil refinery and many factories. A highway and railway connect Tema to Accra.
The construction of the harbour was proposed by British Colonial Officers in the Gold Coast before its independence. An old fishing village called Torman was the proposed site for the harbour's construction. The rapid industrialization that followed Ghana's independence led to the town adopting the name Tema from that of the fishing village.
The need for a second deep water port in Ghana was precipitated by the proposal made in 1951 to establish an aluminium industry as a vital part of the Volta River Project. Logistical considerations indicated a site near the capital, Accra. The shore in this vicinity, fully exposed to the Atlantic Ocean, offered no obvious site and many early investigators had rejected it as unsuitable. Accra harbour had silted up. Nevertheless, a small embayment at Tema which gave some shelter to the canoes of a fishing community seventeen miles east of Accra was investigated and deemed capable of development, provided an adequate source of rock could be found for the construction of breakwaters. This was located 20 miles north in the Shai Hills and the decision to build a new four-berth, deep water port at Tema was taken in 1952.
Read also: Real Estate in Ghana: Tema Community 25
The Paper records the history of the creation of this port and the town which was its necessary accompaniment, from the construction of the preliminary road, rail and service connexions in 1952-4, to the completion, by the end of 1965, of twelve deep water berths, an oil berth, a small dry dock and slipways, and a large fishing harbour, with all the supporting land installations required of a modern port, and the start of a 900 ft long graving dock and modern shipbuilding and shipbreaking yards.
A container terminal at Tema Port
The Port's Significance
Tema is a very important city for Ghana's economy. The Tema Port, which opened in 1962, is the largest of Ghana's two seaports. In 2020, a big project costing $1.5 billion was finished to make the port even bigger. This project helps the port handle more containers. The port covers a water area of 1.7 square kilometers (0.65 square miles) and a land area of 3.9 square kilometers (1.5 square miles). It handles 80% of Ghana's imports and exports, including the country's main export, cacao. The port's container yard can hold over 8,000 large shipping containers at one time. There are also covered storage areas that can hold 50,000 tonnes of goods.
OPERATIONAL LAUNCHING OF MPS TERMINAL 3: DOCKING OF THE FIRST COMMERCIAL VESSEL
Location of Tema in Ghana
Fishing Industry in Tema
Ghana has a long history of fishing. Tema has a special fishing harbor located at the eastern end of the main commercial harbor. The Inner Fishing Harbour was built in 1962 to help smaller fishing boats. In 1965, the Outer Fishing Harbour was built for bigger industrial vessels like trawlers and tuna boats. These trawlers can catch 55-65 tonnes of fish per trip. The Canoe Basin is for local artisanal fishermen who use traditional canoes. About 400 canoes usually use this basin. Most of these are wooden canoes, and they are mainly owned by local Ghanaians.
Read also: Ghana's Tema General Hospital: Past and Present
Tema Development Corporation (TDC)
The Tema Development Corporation (TDC) is a government group in charge of planning and developing the entire city of Tema. They have helped build affordable public housing. The TDC has been very important in developing the harbor area with modern homes. The corporation was started in 1952 to plan and manage Tema. The first CEO of the corporation was Theodore S.
However, the Tema Development Corporation could not build enough homes or provide enough services for all the new people.
Tema has public transport that connects it to many major cities in Ghana.
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Location | Coastal Ghana, east of Accra |
| Establishment | Harbour opened in 1962 |
| Significance | Largest seaport in Ghana, handles 80% of imports/exports |
| Key Exports | Cacao beans |
Sister City Relationships
Tema has "sister city" relationships with several cities around the world.
Read also: Challenges in the African Market
Popular articles:
tags: #Ghana
