Reforming Port Services in Africa

There are approximately 90 maritime ports in Africa which include coastal ports and those located on inland lakes and rivers. The top 10 ports in Sub Saharan Africa account for nearly three-quarters of the cargo transported to and from the region. Among the region’s largest and/or most active ports are Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and Tema, Ghana, in West Africa; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Mombasa, Kenya, in East Africa; and Durban, South Africa, and Maputo, Mozambique, in southern Africa.  Together, these six ports account for almost one-half of containerized cargo transiting SSA.  Among the region’s coastal ports, the South African Port of Durban is the largest in terms of annual throughput, and the next largest port is Mombasa, Kenya.

Nonetheless, the capacity of even the largest SSA ports to handle a rising volume of containerized cargo remains insufficient.   Firstly, by international standards, most SSA ports are small, even when compared with other ports in the developing world.  Secondly,  the physical infrastructure of most SSA ports is inadequate in part due to historical factors since many SSA ports were developed to accommodate the transport of specific types of raw materials.

Despite the relatively small size of the SSA maritime market, several ports have undergone recent reforms and are attracting new investment. Reforms are aimed primarily at improving the operational efficiency of ports, which historically have been hampered by inadequate infrastructure, poor management, and a lack of financial resources. Reform has largely been achieved through public-private partnerships, in which a private-sector entity is granted a concession to operate a port while the port remains under state ownership. In many cases, the private-sector entity also invests in port infrastructure and equipment. By 2000, 70 percent of SSA ports had some form of private-sector participation.