Lagos – Experts at the African Development Bank’s First Transport Forum have anchored the competitiveness of Africa’s economies on the efficiency of African ports.
This is contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the forum and obtained from the website of the bank.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the forum with the theme “ Improving Ports: Gateways to Africa,’’ was held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire from November 26 -27.
Participants at the forum decried the inefficiency of Africa’s ports, which they said was caused by poor infrastructure.
They also cited old and unsuitable equipment and vessels, inadequate technology, congestion, and long delays, among other factors as plaguing most African Ports.
“Port capacity and logistics cannot handle the increasing traffic across most of Africa, causing congestion,” said Admou Saley Abdourahamane, the Secretary General of the Union of African Shippers Councils.
He added that the congestion was due to factors such as deficient physical infrastructure, weak regulatory systems and poor management, all of which amounted to poor port efficiency.
According to Abdourahamane, the development has led to high trading costs in Africa.
“What this situation does is to contribute to the marginalisation of the continent from international markets,” said Abdourahamane.
The communiqué noted that Africa had 66 ports, 28 of them in West Africa.
It said that the amount of time it took to transport goods within the continent using ports came into question.
It mentioned that though the state of roads in Africa is poor, it was noted that ports contributed in a big way to transport delays.
“It takes 12-13 or sometimes more days to transport cargo in Côte d’Ivoire, while it takes much shorter time outside the continent,” said Drepoba Leandre Sery, a manager at the Autonomous Port of Abidjan.
Citing Statistics from the World Bank, the communiqué explained that cargo traveling from a port to a city in a landlocked Sub-Saharan African country generally spends more of its time (75 per cent) at the port than on the road.
It further estimates that cargo spends nearly three weeks on average in Sub-Saharan African ports, compared to less than a week in large ports in Europe, Latin America and Asia.
This, experts stress, harms Africa’s economy, deterring the promotion of value-added industries that rely on time-sensitive supply chains.
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It expressed hope that some African countries had embarked on measures to address these challenges.
“ For example, Côte d’Ivoire has set up a competitiveness commission to look into ways of improving the operations of its ports, including expansion,’’ Sery said.
Mr Stefan Atchia, a Transport Policy Specialist, noted that the Bank has been supporting port expansion plans in order to provide the continent with sufficient port capacity to meet rising demand. (NAN)
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