Ghana vice president urges faster development of Volta Lake as strategic transport corridor

Ghana’s Volta Lake could become a “jobs corridor” rather than simply another transport project, Vice President Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang said at a World Bank leadership retreat in Accra.

She called for faster development of the lake into a logistics and commercial transport route serving trade, agriculture and employment. The proposed system would move goods from Tema to Akosombo by road or rail, then transfer them to commercially operated barges for transport across the lake.

At inland terminals, cargo could return to road networks linking Tamale with markets in Burkina Faso, Mali and the wider Sahel. “If properly developed, it can connect northern Ghana more efficiently to the south, support agriculture, facilitate trade, create industrial activity, and open opportunities for communities,” Opoku-Agyemang said.

The vice president said the government was open to working with the International Finance Corporation to make the Volta Lake Transport Project commercially viable, attractive to private investors and consistent with Ghana’s wider economic strategy. She outlined a possible division of roles within the World Bank Group: the World Bank could support public infrastructure, institutions and policy, while IFC could structure transactions and mobilise private capital. MIGA could help reduce qualifying investment risks.

Opoku-Agyemang linked the proposal to Ghana’s 24-Hour Economy, Big Push infrastructure programme, agricultural transformation and export initiatives. She argued that these efforts should connect infrastructure with production, finance with investment, skills with enterprise and Ghanaian businesses with larger markets.

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If properly developed, it can connect northern Ghana more efficiently to the south, support agriculture, facilitate trade, create industrial activity, and open opportunities for communities.