Economic Infrastructure

Notwithstanding the great economic potential of the region, the development of the region, which would increase economic activity and bring progress, is lagging behind and the need for collaborative efforts to develop the Region becomes very important. The Sekondi Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry is ready to facilitate investments to the Region..

Rail transport used to play a very important role in the region’s development by facilitating transportation of goods and people, export of bauxite, manganese, timber and timber products and cocoa through the port at Takoradi. It also kept the mining industries running, and made commerce and trade functional. But this is now in a very bad state.

The line from Takoradi to Kumasi and Awaso, known as the Western Line, is however still the only long-distance section of Ghana’s railway system which still functions, though rather inefficiently. The deep-water port at Takoradi handles about 75 per cent of Ghana’s export trade of timber, cocoa, manganese and bauxite. The present state of the harbour necessitates major rehabilitation and expansion to enable it handle the increase in exportable commodities from the region, and also take the pressure off the Tema Port for some imports. Its waterways need to be deepened to be able to handle larger container ships, to support the level of industrialisation needed to accelerate the economic development of the region and the country. This, when linked with the Export Free Zone (EPZ) enclave and the Aboadze Thermal Station would increase industrial activity and create more employment opportunities.

The economic activities of the region also developed around these important resources, namely cocoa, timber and minerals. The region is now the country’s largest producer of cocoa, and has the highest concentration of individual gold mines in the country. Only Ashanti Goldfields in Obuasi surpasses the mines in the region in both size of operations and quantity of gold production. The region also has the country’s only active bauxite and manganese mines. The manufacturing of cocoa products at a factory in Takoradi, timber processing in Sekondi-Takoradi, the Sefwi and Bibiani areas and the Amenfi and Aowin areas around Samreboi and Enchi and gold and manganese mining in the Wassa areas, have attracted migrants in search of jobs to the region, including the commercial sea port of Takoradi.

The only rubber-processing factory in the country is also located at Agona Junction, and with plans to revive the former Firestone tyre factory at Bonsa still theoretically on the drawing board, the region may soon have two rubber processing factories to fully utilise the vast raw material base found in the large rubber plantations of the region. The country’s only glass factory, which has unfortunately collapsed after being divested to a private investor, was also located at Aboso in the Wassa West district. There are large deposits of good silica sand and lime deposits as raw materials in the Jomoro district that could feed the factory. It therefore still has a good chance of possible revival with good planning and a more efficient investment programme. The lime deposits could also be exploited as raw material to feed the cement factory at Takoradi, but this has not yet happened.