Harboursandport.com: Abuja --- Six Africa African countries are at war in a bid to capture
large chunk of transit cargoes meant for land-locked countries.
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| A port in Lagos. |
To this end, the six coastal countries in the continent are now
engaged in ports infrastructure expansion and modernization to have an
advantage in this regard.
Disclosing this at the just concluded International Association
of Ports and Harbours, IAPH conference in Abuja, the Acting Director-General of
the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, GPHA, Mr. Micheal Luguje, said that
most African countries hosting ports have began expanding, modernizing and
building new infrastructure with a view to attracting this category of cargoes.
According to him about six African countries are currently
scrambling for trans-shipment cargoes.
Luguje stated: “We are all competing, about six of us, namely:
Nigeria, Togo, Benin Republic, Ghana Cote D’ Voire, Senegal and Guinea. We
are competing for cargoes for Niger, Mali and Burkina-Faso.
‘‘We are competing for the business of these landlocked
countries and that competition is based on preference of these landlocked
countries.
“They look at the distance and see how close these coastal
countries are to their countries, how safe their cargoes are, how much
infrastructure these coastal countries have and how less expensive it is.
“They look at all these factors to chose a port, and you notice
that Nigeria do not do much in the area of trans-shipment cargoes except for
Niger because of the direct access between Nigeria and Niger.
“Because if Nigeria is going to do any cargo for Burkina Faso,
the cargo must first pass through Niger to enter Burkina-Faso.
“The same way if Nigeria is going to do Mali, that is even
worse, that will be a round trip. So naturally Nigeria is not attractive to
Malian transit cargo.
“Benin Republic too has direct access to Niger, so Nigeria and
Benin will be competing for Niger Cargoes but you take Burkina-Faso whose
location is accessible to Togo, Ghana, and Cote D’ Voire .
‘‘So you see that there is fierce competition between Ghana,
Togo and Cot D’ Voire for Burkina-Faso cargo.
“For Mali, Senegal is the most advantageous port because they
have direct rail connection between Dakar and Mali, but then you still find a
few shippers from Mali using Ghanaian ports which are 2,000 miles away.
“Why travel 2,000 miles with your cargo when you just do within
900 kilometres with Dakar. They take a whole lot of consideration when taking
these decisions
‘‘So that competition is there, ports are offering various
facilities, you have longer period to store your cargoes, you have
preferential rates, you do not pay the same with local cargoes and they also
look at Customs regimes that are friendly”
Luguje explained that improving port efficiency is a critical
requirement for accelerated national economic development adding that improving
port infrastructure is also a critical component of port efficiency for African
countries.
“African ports must improve port infrastructure as part of
national development agenda and regional integration”, he said.
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