Operational improvement spurs investment in West African ports

Growing co-operation between terminal operators is driving change for the West African port sector and spurring investment in new infrastructure, says intergovernmental organisation, the International Transport Forum (ITF).

The ITF explains that ports in Africa generally have longer ship turnaround times, with an average of more than three days no exception. The organisation points out that the port of Mombasa in Kenya had an average turnaround time of 4.1 days in 2014. However, there has been an improvement over the past decades.

Currently, the majority of joint ventures are concentrated in certain geographical areas, in particular China, West Africa and North Europe; but the number of joint ventures of global terminal operators is expected to grow.

The ITF explains that cooperation between the largest global terminal operators is fairly new; however, these joint ventures begin to make up a substantial part of the operators’ terminal portfolios.

Although long wait times and lack of infrastructure have, in the past, resulted in limited growth, the ITF noted in its recently published report ‘The Impact of Mega-Ships’, that Africa’s rich natural resources were attracting global industries to fund transport links.