Finnfund and Access Bank Ghana, a subsidiary of Nigeria’s Access Bank, have provided financing to Ghana Airport Cargo Centre (GACC), a new cargo center at Kotoka International Airport in Accra.

Mikko Kuuskoski, Finnfund Associate Director, said: “Our finance has played an important role in enabling the project.  Ghana is a new target country for Finnfund, and GACC is Finnfund’s first investment in logistics.”

“The new cargo center is expected to have multiple positive impacts on the economy of Ghana and its foreign trade. It is important for a lower middle income country like Ghana to develop and diversify foreign trade,” he added.

Construction of the cargo center began in 2014.

The cargo center is to be operated by Swissport Ghana, a joint enterprise of GACC and Swissport International, a provider of ground services to world airports.

At present Kotoka Airport can handle about 50,000 tons of cargo per year.

The new cargo center will increase Kotoka’s capacity by about 70,000 tones.

The efficiency and speed of cargo handling will also improve.

“Our new center is targeting efficiency and safety,” said GACC adviser William Lloyd.

He estimates that, when it is complete, Swissport will employ about 300 workers at Accra.

The growing volume of cargo will create new jobs in forwarding, too, and in the adjacent facilities being built for parking and catering.

The increase in airfreight capacity and faster cargo services will be valuable to Ghanaian exporters. 

Lloyd said that 90% of Ghana’s outgoing airfreight consists of easily perishable agricultural products.

The main exports are pineapples, but papaya, passionfruit, vegetables and yams are also important.

“Local producers have also begun to pre-pack fruits such as ready-peeled pineapple, mango and papaya,” he said.

Lloyd added that the function of the new cargo center is to establish Accra as a hub for airfreight in West Africa.

“It has a covered transit area where large planes from Europe, Asia and the Americas can unload freight for division into smaller batches and onward shipment to smaller freight centers in West and Central Africa,” he said.