The year 2023 is projected to be one of the biggest turning points in Tema Shipyard Limited’s near-60-year history. Fundamental changes and challenges are being met head-on at the once-ailing state-owned Ghanaian company. On the cusp of private investment, an extensive brand overhaul, experienced staff recruitment and a sharpened focus on efficiencies, the Chief Executive Officer, Dr Alexander Yaw Adusei Jr. reflects on one of the “biggest transformational agendas in Ghana’s maritime industry” in an interview with Andy Probert.
Sitting calmly but firmly in the eye of a storm that has been whipping up for years around the fortunes of Ghana’s Tema Shipyard, CEO, Dr Alexander Adusei, is pragmatic, but impatient for a new era to dawn.
Dr Adusei, a Ghana-born US-trained lawyer, is adamant that plotting a new direction is one of the few remaining hopes
to guarantee the state-owned shipyard a brighter commercial future. “The aim is simple: to reawaken this sleeping giant with the collective support of Ghanaian technocrats and professional maritime artisans,” he stated.
Ground-zero
January 1, 2023, was ground-zero for the shipyard with an executed decision to offer severance packages to over 270 people employed by the state at Tema Shipyard.
“Upon careful evaluation, it was recognised that the workforce had been accustomed to a public sector mindset and, it was quite a challenge to adjust to a private sector mentality,” Dr Adusei said.
This was a strategic decision to pave the way to clean the age-long systemic challenges that had bedevilled the growth of
the company and to allow it to usher in a new era as a formidable competitor on the world stage.
“While there was a lot of pensiveness, hope springs eternal and reflected a longoverdue turning point,” said Dr Adusei, who has been CEO since November 2020. “It represented a new start. With the policy direction of the Transport Ministry and the support of the Director General of Ghana’s Port and Harbours Authority, we have adopted a new strategic focus, running the shipyard with a private sector mentality.
“Tema Shipyard is a public sector entity, some aspects of its operations are being affected by the bureaucratic processes and regulations inherent in the public sector. To be efficient in our productivity, we need not only capital investments but we need strategic private partnerships that open the doors for employment, technology transfer and increased revenues for the government.”
Paradigm shift
The new strategy is a paradigm shift from previous incarnations of running the shipyard, which began in 1965 with aspirations to be the biggest dock between Europe and South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
“We did not want to continue on the same trajectory so we decided to radically change the dynamics. The workforce will be from the private sector, while we maintain public sector oversight. We have engaged consultants from various backgrounds to help re-position the shipyard to engage the private sector. Our new management model does not intend to divest a State-Owned
Enterprise (SOE), but rather, to lease and license private sector operators who intend to do substantial investments in the company. These private operators can come on board, invest and run the facilities and pay royalties to Tema Shipyard.”
Attracting private-sector investment is conditional, Dr Adusei explained: “We won’t allow someone to come in and take j obs from Ghanaians. We want to ensure we work with parties that can transfer knowledge and expertise to a Ghanaian workforce and work with local enterprises. We want a win-win for the investor community and our youth being trained in various technical institutions across the country.”
On private sector interest, Dr Adusei said: “About 20 companies initially wanted us to completely divest our interests, but that did not reflect the model we envisaged.
“Instead, we have about four to six active parties, including Ghanaian interests with international partners from Turkey, Russia and the Netherlands, plus groups from Nigeria, who are all interested in working within our framework.
“If we can attract three or four private sector entities to invest about $30-$40
million each, in addition to the Ghana Government’s own investment, coupled with the required expertise, the yard’s profile will be augmented to attract bigticket vessels and also be competitive in the drydock market.”
The envisaged investment will include floating docks, synchronised ship-lifts and the development of slipways so vessels can be brought ashore, enabling the workforce to service five vessels simultaneously. These opportunities will change the dynamics of the working space and uplift the company’s strategic placement of the market share.
In the meantime, Tema Shipyard has changed to a 24-hour shift pattern, helping reduce turnaround times from a month, (under the former system), to 14 days. The
yard has improved its pump downtime from 24 to eight hours, with a new addition planned to shrink that further. There are plans to install a power generator as a backup to Ghana’s national grid. The yard is also working with the port authority to dredge channels, improve the depths, and be able to attract vessels with deeper drafts.
Alongside the dock infrastructure, Tema operates 29,000 sqm of open space and 10,000 sqm of enclosed space. Two dockside cranes are supplemented by three mobile cranes, two cherry pickers, three forklifts and compression machinery among the new fleet in order. The yard is in talks with foreign companies and OEMs to refurbish the dockside cranes to improve their functionality.
Being active in ship repair, ship modification, steel fabrication and associated works, the facility also operates Western Africa’s largest dock facility. Its two graving docks consist of one capable of handling up to 100,000 DWT and the other 10,000 DWT.
Attracting high net-worth vessels for work can only be achieved with well-trained manpower with the requisite equipment, according to Dr Adusei: “Our focus is to restructure the yard and ensure the tools are in place to attract these vessels. We want owners to bring their vessels for ship repair here knowing we run a one-
stop-shop providing a complete portfolio of services.”
The yard is also set for a new name as part of a brand overhaul that will help engage clients and bring more traffic, revenues and crucially, investment. The process is underway and should be concluded soon.
Reflecting on the first six months of 2023, Dr Adusei acknowledged the shipyard had been busier than ever in his almost three-year tenure: “That is because we do not have concerns about delays. If we agree to 20 days work we push to
finish in ten days. Time is of the essence for our clients and we need to meet our contractual obligations.”
The yard now operates with about 40 regular contract staff, while the private sector provides a pool of upwards of 800 workers per project. The ultimate goal is to help the unemployment market by opening spaces within the maritime industry.
“We can work on various vessels, including barges, tankers, jack-ups and dredgers,” said Dr Adusei. “In 2023, we are working on some of the largest tankers from Nigeria, which all come with different complexities.”
A modern yard attracts clients that otherwise might go to the Mediterranean or Middle East. That also applies to Ghanaian vessel owners, according to Dr Adusei: “Ghana has about 97 fishing trawlers and Tema will be lucky to get ten as the rest go to the Ivory Coast, Togo, Senegal and further to repair facilities because of scheduling conflicts and contractual obligations.”
The shipyard intends to work within the legal framework to allow all vessels operating within Ghanian waters and in contract with the Ghanaian government, to give Tema Shipyard the right of first refusal on vessel repairs.
“We are working to raise confidence,” Dr Adusei concluded. “We cannot do the same things and expect different results. If you cannot guarantee the work will be done in a certain time, then that simply destroys a business and customers go elsewhere.
“We need to rebuild those confidences to show the mindset of today is not the mindset of old. We have to take the busi -
ness to them. Our shipyard is on the upturn and will again be the primary focus of Ghana’s maritime industry and the number one shipyard in Africa. The legacy I want to leave is an SOE operating in partnership with the private sector: with strong local content expectation, creating job opportunities for Ghanaians and guaranteeing government revenues.”
