Kpando-Torkor Fish Market and Fisheries Complex

Kpando-Torkor Fish Market is a working fish market on the shore of Lake Volta in Kpando-Torkor, a fishing community and ferry port in the Kpando Municipal District of the Volta Region. It is described as the oldest inland landing point in the Volta Region, and fishing is the dominant occupation in the district's lakeside communities.

The market area combines open fish stalls set along the lake with covered stalls. Traders are reported to prefer the open section because of its closeness to the water and its easy access to boat and ferry passengers, described as their main source of market. The landing beach has a fresh fish market where catch from Lake Volta is sold, with separate areas for selling fresh fish and for smoking fish.

The market sits within a fisheries complex whose infrastructure has included a fisheries school, a store and a boat-building yard. A fishery school at Kpando Torkor had trained 81 youths aged 17 to 21 and 32 young women aged 16 to 21 by 1991, and a Mobile Fishery School station there served 26 settlements. A communal fishery centre was completed at Kpando and Torkor, providing facilities for landing, handling, processing and marketing fish, along with stores, workshops, training and social facilities. A study reported that information from the Ghana Districts website indicated the complex's facilities were then not in use and had deteriorated; the current operating condition of the centre is not established here.

Women dominate value addition at Kpando-Torkor through smoking, salting, freezing, drying and marketing of fish. Some women both fish and smoke fish, sell fresh fish, and act as middlepersons buying catch from other fishermen.

Kpando-Torkor also serves as a crossing point over Lake Volta to Afram Plains and nearby villages, using outboard motor powered boats or the government-operated pontoon. The district capital, Kpando, is about 5 km away, where banking services are available; there are no banks in Kpando-Torkor. Respondents in one study said the market becomes muddy and unhygienic during rain and that its condition discourages outside traders. Practical details such as opening hours, fees, toilets, parking, drinking water and visitor information are not documented in the available sources.