APM Terminals Inland Services Africa has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Ghana and the non-profit road safety organization Amend to ensure access roads and highways that will handle the inland transportation at the new port and logistics hub in Tema are safe and able to handle the increased traffic flow.

“We wanted to start this road safety initiative proactively with our customers and our partners before our new port opens in 2019 to prepare the country for future growth in cargo volumes and new inland distribution patterns,” said Peter Jakobsen, head of Africa inland services at APM Terminals. “We have a lot of expertise and best practices in this area from our work with other customers and countries so our partnership with Amend – an Africa road safety specialist – promises to deliver the critical results necessary to protect people’s lives and ensure Ghana’s supply chains succeed.”

APM Terminals began its Magnum leadership training programme in Ghana earlier this year, under which participants worked with Amend to map out the social and business ideas necessary to develop new ways of improving corporate social responsibility through road safety initiatives and community engagement. A joint project was created out of this collaboration.

According to Amend, over 1.2 million worldwide die every year from road traffic injuries and millions more are injured. Africa has the world’s highest road traffic injury rates, and road traffic injury is the leading cause of death for children over five years-old.

Amend develops, implements and evaluates evidence-based programmes to reduce the incidence of road traffic injuries in Africa, where rates of such injuries are the highest in the world and are the leading cause of death for children over five years old.