Large economies have historically developed around their river basins. It’s now Africa’s turn to grow.

Over history, nations have developed and grown on their major river basins. They still do.

• Tonnage. Ports on China’s Yangtze handled more than 4 billion tonnes of cargo in 2024 — the busiest inland waterway in the world. The Rhine carried 281.9 million tonnes in 2025.
• Trucks off the road. In the United States, one 15-barge tow carries as much as 1,050 trucks.
• Savings. On a gallon of fuel, a barge moves a tonne of cargo about four and a half times as far as a truck. For the same cargo, trucks give off about nine times the greenhouse gas.
• Lives saved. For every death in a barge accident, trucks moving the same freight cause 121. More than 2,400 people died on Ghana’s roads in 2024.

Africa’s major rivers are among the least used in the world. That is the opportunity.

African River Corridors is partnering with Genser Energy to develop Ghana’s Ankobra River into a modern transport corridor, from the Atlantic to Awaso.

• About 245 km of navigable river, open all year.
• Eighteen locks and weirs that lift vessels 113 m, from sea level to Awaso.
• Electric motor vessels, each carrying about 3,500 tonnes.
• A possible canal to the Offin River, to reach Nyinahin and Kumasi.

The river is surveyed and modelled, the locks, weirs and vessels are designed, and the permits are in place.

Visit ankobrariver.com