Access roads between the ports and main highways often lack capacity, while the highways themselves are often insufficient to deal with the volume of transport that is required. 

Apart from transhipment business, the various port projects in the region are competing for trade from the landlocked Sahelian states to the north – Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. Transport infrastructure in the region had traditionally been structured to move cargo from north to south, with little integration between Anglophone and Francophone countries. This pattern began to break down during Côte d’Ivoire’s civil war and subsequent armed stalemate, which encouraged Sahelian traders to switch their business from Abidjan to Tema. If road links, in particular, are improved, then this pattern is likely to break down further, with greater competition between ports.

New road capacity is being added in conjunction with most of the new port projects, including a new motorway to provide much greater capacity between Tema and the Ghanaian capital of Accra. Similarly, a highway with five lanes in each direction is planned between Badagry and Lagos. 

There may even be light at the end of the tunnel for the dilapidated Nigerian rail network. As WorldCargo News reported in May and June, a consortium of GE, Sinohydro, Transnet and APM Terminals has been chosen “for the interim phase of the concession of Nigeria’s narrow gauge rail network”.  APMT will develop intermodal  terminals along the network.

A spokesperson for APMT stated: “This will complement APM Terminals’ investments in rail sidings to facilitate cargo transportation from the ocean terminal by rail. APM Terminals will also deploy cargo handling equipment at key locations on the rail network to support cargo distribution across the country.” A revamped rail network would complement the eight inland container depots that are at various stages of development by public-private partnerships. The first of these, at Kakuri in Kaduna state, opened in January.

SITARAIL, a Bolloré offshoot, has begun work on upgrading the railway between Abidjan and Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, in order to boost both freight and passenger capacity on the line. Due for completion by 2021, the work is expected to cost CFA260B (US$464M). New railways include a 510 km line planned by Portugal’s Mota-Engil between Kribi and the east of the country, in the first instance to serve bauxite and iron ore exports, but it could also be used for wider trade.

Successive Nigerian governments have called for the development of the country’s rivers as cargo transport arteries, and now new terminals are planned. A Konecranes Gottwald Model 2 mobile harbour crane was ordered for the river port of Baro in May. Further upstream on the Niger River, the government of Mali and DP World are keen to use the river for transporting cargo. 

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This complete item is approximately 500 words in length, and appeared in the July 2018 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 27. To access this issue download the PDF here.