Ghana's Tamale airport to be expanded

Tamale to become international airport after planned upgrade at Kumasi is dropped

Construction work to expand Tamale regional airport into an international hub is set to commence by the start of August.

The $100 million expansion project is being undertaken at the airport in northern Ghana after similar plans for the Kumasi airport in the country's central Ashanti region were dropped due to lack of space caused by land encroachment, according to the country's transport ministry.

Bawah Mogtari, the deputy transport minister, said the government is now upgrading the Tamale regional airport instead as it has more land available for the expansion project. However she said that long-term plans to expand Kumasi into an international airport have not been shelved and will be considered in the future, "land permitting".

The existing runway at Kumasi is currently being renovated. Mogtari added there well also plans to construct a new terminal at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to take pressure off the other terminals. Last year the government announced plans to replace KIA with a new international airport in the rural Dangme West district of the greater Accra region, but work on this project is not likely to start for a number of years.