“This project has been on the drawing board since 1965. Several attempts have been made to get it off the ground. Five (5) different sod-cuttings have been done, but no actual construction has been done. Today, we are going to see something different. There is going to be a sod-cutting, which will be followed by the construction of the harbour.”
These were the words of the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Wednesday, 5th December, 2018, when he cut the sod for the construction of a fishing harbour at James Town, in the Odododiodioo constituency, in Greater Accra.
Addressing the gathering at Jamestown, the President indicated that the construction of the harbour is being made possible by a $60 million grant by the Chinese Government, and thanked the Chinese President, His Excellency Xi Jinping, for this act of solidarity and friendship.
“The presence of the Chinese Ambassador here is to testify to the seriousness to which the Chinese attach to this project, and it is the best possible indication for everybody here that this project will move from the drawing board and onto the ground, and we will see the construction of the James Town Harbour,” he said, to a round of applause from the gathering.
The President was confident that the construction and subsequent completion of the harbour will “bring a lot of jobs to Jamestown, and it is going to promote a lot of trading activities here and beyond.”
President Akufo-Addo assured the gathering that his Government is not looking at the development of Ghana through the eyes of party, partisan politics.
“We are not gearing the developments of the nation to areas that support us, and neglecting areas that do not support us. We are determined to develop Ghana, all of Ghana. What is going on is the development that meets the needs the people, and not developments that respond to partisan, political considerations,” he said.
The President, thus, urged residents of Jamestown to “support the Chinese engineers and contractors responsible for the construction, and make sure that, very soon, this project that has been like a dream becomes reality, and I will take some small credit for being the President under whose guide this development took place.”
