[5] The construction of the harbour was proposed by British Colonial Officers in the Gold Coast before its independence.

An old fishing village called Torman was the proposed site for the harbour's construction.

[6] The rapid industrialization that followed Ghana's independence led to the town adopting the name Tema from that of the fishing village.

After independence, under the leadership of Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah, the construction of the harbour began in the 1950s with planning led by the award-winning city planner and the first Ghanaian architect, Theodore S.

[12] The harbour upgrades will improve the cargo-handling capacity of the Tema harbour and port; and the amount of freight will continue to rise as Ghana's economy maintains its high rate of growth, with expansion tipped to come in at just under 8% in 2013.