Ghana has requested for bids from 18 companies for a $2.5 billion contract to expand its ports and enable them to handle larger vessels, making it west Africa’s largest transport hub.

The contract, which is expected to be completed in 2018, will double the current capacity at the ports and reduce waiting time for docking vessels, OsunDefender reported.

Ghanaian government is to award a $2.5 billion contract for the expansion of its ports facilities to attract bigger vessels in a bid to make it the hub for the sub-region.

Paul Asare Ansah, Head of Marketing and Public Relations of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), said they had given 18 companies from around the world, a deadline of January 27, 2014, to present technical and financial bids for five stages of expansion at Tema and Takoradi ports.

Capacity for twenty-foot equivalent containers at Tema, which handles about 90 percent of the nation’s traffic, will double to 2 million TEUs a year by 2018, he said. Tema is located 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of Accra, the capital.

“It’s our dream to make Ghana the regional hub for shipments and receive really big vessels,” Ansah said. “We need to quickly expand capacity to handle the ever increasing traffic.”

Ghana’s debut as an oil exporter in 2010 boosted demand for imports of machinery, fuel and food. The economy of the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer has grown at an average of 7.3 percent, faster than the average in sub-Saharan Africa, in the past decade, putting pressure on aging infrastructure.

Ghana wants to offer an alternative to Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer and home to West Africa’s biggest port, as cases of piracy increase in the Gulf of Guinea.

There were 40 attacks of piracy in the first nine months of the year in the Gulf of Guinea, which borders the nations of Ghana, Gabon and Nigeria, oil-producing nations that account for about a third of crude output on the continent. The majority of the attacks were east of Ghana.

“Ships are safe in our waters,” Ansah said. “We need to take advantage of the peace and stability.”

Ghana has already awarded contracts valued at about $470 million for the first stage of expansion at Tema and Takoradi, 218 kilometers west of Accra.