West African Ports Research Articles

Economic assessment of transporting refrigerated cargo between West-Africa and Europe: a chain cost analysis approach

Determining which ports to call at in a maritime loop is considered as an important determinant factor for shipping companies which impacts not only on efficiency, and productivity but also on transportation costs. The port selection process becomes more challenging and sensitive if the market is for perishable goods such as fruits and vegetables. Specifically, this paper aims to develop an efficient maritime supply chain for reefer cargo. A case study of refrigerated cargo trade between West-Africa and West-Europe is investigated for which the main objective is to minimize the trade route's supply chain costs. To do so, the paper analyzes various scenarios based upon the different types of cargo (transshipment and non-transshipment), commodity types (dry and reefer), and a combination of different (un)loading ports in and the Rotterdam–Gibraltar range. Four African ports, namely Tema (Ghana), Douala (Cameroon), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), and Dakar (Senegal), are considered for the outbound leg (Africa–Europe), while several ports in the E.U. and the U.K. are selected as inbound leg. The analysis is initiated by applying a data-gathering strategy to get the relevant container flow from European ports to West-African ports. Then, a chain cost modelling approach is used to determine what the sailing schedule of the vessel should be. By performing the import/export cargo volume and maritime and supply chain costs are calculated, which can be used by the involved stakeholders to decide which ports are the best to call on a specific route.

Shifting proximities: visualizing changes in the maritime connectivity of African countries (2006/2016)

ABSTRACT As a process, containerization in Africa is still on-going. In the last decades, a number of new port projects have emerged in parallel with the reorganization of services by shipping companies. To reflect these changes, this paper studies several questions on the geographic differentiation of maritime connectivities across the continent as well as on the longitudinal trends in maritime connectivities in relation to evolving economic, trade and logistical contexts. To this end, we propose a synthetic visualization of the country-level containerized links using the Liner Shipping Bilateral Connectivity Indicator (LSBCI). The resulting graph, obtained through Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), shows that West Africa and East Africa appear as relatively separated subsystems, mediated by several countries in the Northern and the Southern parts of Africa. Between 2006 and 2016, West Africa, initially tied to Europe and America, is increasingly tied to Asia. Our results show major improvements in the maritime connectivity of Morocco, Djibouti and several West African ports. Conversely, most of mainland East African countries stagnate or decline. Connectivities have not converged across the continent. In some cases changes in maritime connectivity mostly result from variations in vessel size. We explore a method to identify these situations.

Port Efficiency Assessment for Selecting Transit Port for West African Land Locked Countries

The fundamental purpose of this paper is to assess the efficiency of port in West Africa and selectively select the best transit port for landlocked West African countries and for that matter data envelopment analysis will be used for this research. Seven (7) ports were selected out of twelve (12) using container throughput level for the basis of their selection, whiles DEA model was used for the determination of their relative efficiencies and their over time efficiencies through window analysis. It is noted that. The study noted that based on the operational efficiency of the port of Tema in Ghana, port Lomé and port of Douala, they should serve and standout as the transit port when it comes to West African landlocked countries selecting of transit port. It is recommended that there should be an expansion in infrastructure which is which should be the target so as to improve operational efficiency in West African port. Ports authorities should look more into that because is the beacon of ports efficiency and performance, because infrastructure propels ports mass production once those infrastructures are properly utilized.

Determining Benchmarks for Cargo Throughput Performances of Privatized Seaports in Nigeria

There exists the challenge of seeming lack of empirically determined cargo throughput benchmark models for the privatized West African port terminals particularly in Nigeria, as target benchmarks which terminal operators and port authorities must drive towards to ensure that the current improvement in port productivity experienced in the post concession era is sustained. The study was therefore aimed at developing benchmarks for the cargo throughput performances of the privatized five Nigeria ports of Apapa (Lagos), Port-Harcourt, Onne, Warri and Calabar. Such benchmarks developed for each seaport must be higher than the pre-privatization cargo throughput performances of the seaport. This became important following the improvements observed in the cargo throughput performances of the various ports from the year 2006 after the privatization of the ports and the recent recession faced in the Country which seems to have retarded the cargo throughput performances and other measures of seaport performance in the various Nigeria ports. Using Cp1, CL1, Cw1, Co1, Cc1, to represent the base year 2006 cargo throughput performances of Port-Harcourt, Lagos, Warri, Onne and Calabar seaport respectively; and n, d, to represent the number of post privatization years covered in the study and common difference in cargo throughput performances; the study used a historical design approach in which time series data on cargo throughput performances of the ports were obtained from the Nigeria ports Authority (NPA) annual statistical reports were analyzed using the converging and diverging arithmetic series mathematical modeling tool and MATLAB software, to determine benchmark models, for ensuring that the improved cargo throughput performances of the various seaports, are sustained to remain higher that the pre-privatization cargo throughput performances. The study developed the following Cargo throughput benchmark models for each seaport as findings. Lagos port = CL1 + (n – 1)d ≥ 15223340; Onne port = Co1 + (n -1)d ≥ 15820381; Port-Harcourt port = Cp1 + ( n -1)d ≥ 28016979; Warri = Cw1 + ( n-1)d ≥4643128; Calabar = Cc1 + (n-1)d ≥ 7963434. It was recommended that to improve port revenue which is a dependent factor on cargo throughput and vessel call rate, cargo throughput benchmarks model developed for the individual seaports should be used to empirically model quantum s of cargo throughput needed to economically sustain and improve the level of port operations. It should equally influence port marketing drives. This will ensure that the performance of the ports does not recede into the poor performance indices experienced in the pre-privatization era.

Determining Benchmarks for Cargo Throughput Performances of Privatized Seaports in Nigeria

There exists the challenge of seeming lack of empirically determined cargo throughput benchmark models for the privatized West African port terminals particularly in Nigeria, as target benchmarks which terminal operators and port authorities must drive towards to ensure that the current improvement in port productivity experienced in the post concession era is sustained. The study was therefore aimed at developing benchmarks for the cargo throughput performances of the privatized five Nigeria ports of Apapa (Lagos), Port-Harcourt, One, Warri and Calabar. Such benchmarks developed for each seaport must be higher than the pre-privatization cargo throughput performances of the seaport. This became important following the improvements observed in the cargo throughput performances of the various ports from the year 2006 after the privatization of the ports and the recent recession faced in the Country which seems to have retarded the cargo throughput performances and other measures of seaport performance in the various Nigeria ports.

An Evaluation of West and Central African Ports to Serve as a Hub on the Gulf of Guinea Container Ports Range

The level of competitions among ports keep increasing as port worldwide keep upgrading and expanding their port infrastructures so as to capture the greater share of the market. Every continent phases these competitions. This phenomenon is more prominent in developed countries where ports do not only compete among regional ports but also compete with other ports within the same country such as in America, some European countries and part of Asia like in China. However, the situation is a bit different when it comes to African ports. Most African ports have poor infrastructures and limited technological investments and so port competitions in the African continent cannot be compared with that of the western ports. Despite these setbacks, there is a significant amount of competition among these African ports, especially on a regional basis. The aim of this paper is to determine which port can serve as a hub port between the West and Central African ports along the Gulf of Guinea. The method that will be used to evaluate these ports will be a port indexing method. This method considers different indices for port evaluation to determine the most suitable port. The port of Tema appeared as the most suitable port to serve as a hub port.

The Effects of Intermodality on Transport Routes Choice from West African Ports to Landlocked Countries

The paper studied 5 transport corridors in West Africa, from the ports of Abidjan, Cotonou, Lagos, Lomé, and Tema, to the landlocked countries (LLCs) of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. The study found 15 transport routes available from these ports to the LLCs. It used two modes of transport with their respective transport costs as variables influencing shippers in their choice of corridor route. In regards to the modes of transport, the study chose the unimodal road transport and the intermodal transport as the combination of the rail and road transport, with a projection of the cargo volume demand in 2023 from the LLCs. In addition, a survey conducted on the Togolese corridor with the aim to find from users’ perspective the adequate intermodal terminal location, identified the city of Mango as an ideal host. As for the transport cost analysis attached to each of the modes of transport, the results of this study revealed that in the case of the unimodal road transport, shippers from Burkina Faso would rather choose Tema port in Ghana as optimal route, while shippers from Mali would rather choose Abidjan port in Ivory Coast, and shippers from Niger would choose Cotonou in Benin as the optimal route. Consequently, the study also found that the added parameter of the intermodal terminal of Mango on the Togolese corridor would change the routing habit of the LLCs shippers. In fact, with this parameter in line, the Togolese corridor would be optimal in terms of transport cost minimization for the Niger and Burkina Faso shippers. Based on these findings the study highlights the benefits of the intermodality which it presents to the policymakers.

Regional convergence in environmental policy arrangements: A transformation towards regional environmental governance for West and Central African ports?

Environmental policy-making in West and Central Africa, with implications for the region's ports, is usually dominated by state actors that also represent the nation-states at regional inter-governmental co-operation. The ports share common and transboundary environmental problems, but fall under diverse political and decentralisation systems. Also, in spite of regional inter-governmental co-operation there is disagreement between regional environmental policies and those for the ports at sub-national level. The port authorities are largely absent in environmental negotiations with outcomes ignoring their contributions. However, institutional reform of the ports from the year 2000 onwards has seen the port authorities gaining greater autonomy as public non-state actors and beginning to involve in environmental policy-making. This paper seeks to understand how environmental policy-making and governance is transforming in West and Central African ports. By combining the policy arrangement approach, the main analytical tool for the paper, with the concept of regional convergence, interaction processes among key actors involved in port environmental policy-making in West and Central Africa are studied. The study finds a developing innovation of joint environmental policy-making arrangement in which West and Central African port authorities, from sub-national level, are engaging directly with regional inter-governmental and Environmental Non-Governmental Organisation actors. The developing innovation by-passes institutionalised state-led environmental policy-making arrangements, with the potential for transforming environmental governance of West and Central African ports. It is concluded that non-state actors, when given flexible manoeuvring, can be innovative in overcoming diverse statist political dynamics in dealing coherently with transboundary environmental issues within a territorial region. However, state actors remain key as linking pins in transboundary environmental policy and governance.

Container Ports Throughput Analysis: A Comparative Evaluation of China and Five West African Countries' Seaports Efficiencies

The measurement of the container port throughput and efficiency of China and 5 West African ports was the objective of this study. The DEA model, which is a non-parametric methodology, was applied to a number of inputs of port production and a single output. The results show that although China’s ports are the largest in terms of throughput and size, they are relatively inefficient due to over-capacity. In West Africa, it was revealed that the Tema port in Ghana was the most efficient although it displayed some operational inefficiencies with the Cotonou port in Benin been the least efficient. The results will therefore, add value to future port planning and management and performance ratings.

An Evaluation of Abidjan Container Terminal Competitive Position in West Africa Using a Fuzzy Quantified SWOT Framework

This article proposes a quantified SWOT framework which integrates fuzzy linguistic preference relation to evaluate the competitive position of Abidjan container terminal in West Africa. The integration of fuzzy linguistic preference relation in the quantified SWOT framework circumvents the difficulties in terms of data collection and consistency of judgment matrices prevailing in the conventional AHP and Fuzzy AHP. Moreover, the study provides relevant evidences about the key internal and external attributes shipping lines considered as important and hence the attributes that ports/ terminals most need to enhance in order to improve their attractiveness and be well positioned in the market. On the other hand, the change in terminals competitive position between 2010 and 2013 highlights that the difficulties of West African ports in attracting customers in the sub-region are not only related to internal problems such as inadequate infrastructures, facilities or inefficiency, but significant political and economic constraint outside the ports constraints their competitiveness.

Analysis of the Role of Port Labour Systems and Reforms on the Competitiveness of West Africa Ports

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to critically discuss the role port labour systems can play in the competitiveness of ports in the West African sub region and the implications of the choice of system using Ghana as an example.Design/Methodology/Approach -- The study basically draws heavily on existing literature to find answers to the questions posed. Finding answers to the research questions related to identification of available port labour systems, transferability of practices from one port to the other and benchmarking on the success of the systems lays the foundation for the objectives of the study to be achieved. Based on reviewed literature, various concepts and systems employed by ports and the resultant strategies adopted by management and the labour force to stand for their interest are discussed. Findings -- This study reveals that ports undergo lifecycle, which in turn comes along with its orientation either towards a social or market system. This depends on several identified factors. Thus, in the present assessed situation in the sub region, any West African port including Ghana’s ports and it society at large will be the losers in the long run in the face of intensive competition to serve the vast Sahelian hinterlands if their reforms are social biased.Practical Implications -- This paper is aimed at preparing the ground for future research in this area. The issues pointed out have far reaching consequences for the success or failure of the reforms that are taking place in various ports in the West Africa sub region.Originality/Value -- Effort has been made to point out that seemingly peaceful reform could turn disastrous in the long run if the roadmap and conditions to achieving the objective of the port reform is not layout and made transparent to stakeholders so that labour unions and investors can be proactive in knowing their role and adjusting to the future desired status of the port.

The Drive for a Regional Hub Port for West Africa: General Requirements and Capacity Forecast

Currently there is a drive by a number of West African Ports to attain the status of hub port for the region. This has been driven largely by increasing container throughput in the region in addition to increasing costs for shippers; the latter being attributed to the lack of economies of scale and inefficiencies in ports. This study gathers from literature a consensus on the basic requirements or influential factors of a potential hub location. A survey is carried out to determine the relative importance of hub port requirements according to the major shipping lines operating in the West African region. From the survey, it was established that high port efficiency and performance, stable political environment of the country concerned, and adequate port infrastructure and handling facilities were the three most important requirements/influential factors respectively for a potential West-African hub port, according to the major shipping lines calling at ports in the region. In addition, container throughput levels for West Africa are analysed and a forecast of throughput levels made utilizing a regression model. On average, container throughput will increase at a rate of 10% per annum in West Africa for the next decade as the economies of the region also continue to grow with a forecasted GDP growth rate of about 11% per annum. The regression model expands on the relationships between certain economic factors and container throughput levels in West Africa.

Assessment of Port Efficiency in West Africa Using Data Envelopment Analysis

The aim of this paper is to apply the DEA method in assessing efficiencies of major ports in West Africa. Six ports were selected based on their container throughput levels, and the DEA model was used to determine their relative efficiencies and their efficiencies over time through window analysis. The DEA model was applied to a number of inputs of port production and a single output (container throughput). It was determined that the Port of Tema in Ghana was the most efficient West African port under study. Although Tema exhibited some inefficiency in its operations, the port was found to make good use of its resources for production. On the other extreme, the Port of Cotonou in Benin was found to be the least efficient port obtaining the lowest average efficiency rating over a seven year period. It was determined that the port exhibited a substantial waste in production. Generally, ports in West Africa could be said to exhibit high levels of efficiency con-sidering that four out of six ports had an average efficiency score of 76% or higher for the period under study.

Las puertas del Imperio. Análisis del sistema portuario de Senegal: jerarquía, centralidad y complementariedad en un contexto colonial, 1839-1910

Ports have been key elements that encouraged the development of regional and international trade. West African ports have played a distinguished role in the introduction of their hinterlands into the international economic dynamics. In the case of Senegal, the modernization of ports and railways during the colonial period supported this historical process. However, the scholarly tradition does not explore this question of Senegal until the construction of the port of Dakar in 1910. This paper analyses this topic, presenting a global perspective of the port functions developed by Saint-Louis and Gorée during the Senegalese economic transition towards an extroverted market economy. In addition, it will also show the importance of regional connectivity on the configuration of port systems.

Oil, sex, and temporary migration: The case of Vienna City, Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana

Does the presence of temporary sex migrants trailing a resource boom cause crime, lead to a breakdown of morality, trigger a crisis of sexually transmitted diseases, and depress property values? While popular representations suggest that the answer to each of these questions is an emphatic ‘yes’, and hence the ‘right to the city’ of sex workers should be revoked, preliminary primary data unobtrusively and indirectly collected from sex workers trailing a resource boom in a West African port city suggest that the posited direct connection between prostitution and socio-economic ‘bads’ is not always definitive. Further research is required to probe popular characterisations of temporary sex migrants, the effect of sex work on resource-rich cities, and how they vary at different stages of the oil industry. For now, however, the evidence suggests that there is the need for alternative urbanism that recognises sex workers’ ‘right to the city’ in ways that can make the state use its powers to support rather than exclude such minority groups.

The enchanted arrival: passage into West Africa in the travelogues of Blaise Cendrars and André Gide

Blaise Cendrars’s collection of travel poems entitled Feuilles de route (1924–1928) and Andre Gide’s travel journals Voyage au Congo (1927) and Le retour du Tchad (1928) describe the writer-traveller’s arrival in West African port towns as a metaphorical relocation in another world that suggests a set of narrative and cognitive tensions that call for resolution. These scenes of arrival trigger the question of the language and means of description, pointing to the traveller’s need to transform geography, space, and the experience of encounter into the temporal structure of narrative. This article shows how the description of the arrival scene also requires the traveller to reflect on his presuppositions concerning the place where he has travelled and make apparent the way in which he conceptualises the meaning of his journey. What will be especially highlighted is the way in which the experience of the arrival inspires the writer to project the place of arrival as a possible world that is not only different from but marvellously other than the actual world of home.

Shipping and Invasion of Second-Hand Vehicles in West African Ports: Analysing the Factors and Market Effects at the Port of Abidjan

Since more than a decade sub-Saharan Africa has known a plenty of second-hands vehicles especially in francophone West Africa. These second hand vehicles made of personal fleet of cars constitute more than the 85% of the total number of automobiles in the region. That has contributed in a paradox way to businesses creation and increased the level of entrepreneurship in the automobile sector while it has been a help in performing the taxes collection and policy in ports. The invasion of these types of cars has led to West African ports cities especially Abidjan in Cote d’Ivoire to increase the demand. This paper tends to show the shipping practices of the second hand cars and the demand drawn by the socioeconomic environment. It illustrates the effects on port of Abidjan in Cote d’Ivoire with the local institutional and regulatory function in the shipping activities of the second hand cars. And so far, this study examines the evidence of how the invasion is organized since its import origins and zones to the sales stations and finally describe how this industry generates income for both public sector and private business owners.

Dahomey, Portugal and Bahia: King Adandozan and the Atlantic Slave Trade

This article examines the correspondence between the Portuguese rulers and Dahomean kings, in particular King Adandozan (r. 1797–1818). The letters provide us with new elements to understand West African-European reciprocal perceptions and relations. In describing the main political and military conflicts of Adandozan's reign, the letters also reveal to what extent West African rulers were aware of the Napoleonic Wars. The correspondence sheds light on the impact European conflicts had on Dahomey's economy and how those events contributed to the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in West African ports such as Ouidah, giving clues about the motivations that eventually led to Adandozan's deposition.

The West African port system: global insertion and regional particularities

L’évolution d’un système portuaire dépend de son insertion dans le réseau mondial maritime et de son inscription dans des espaces locaux et régionaux qui proposent des caractéristiques économiques, politiques et géographiques spécifiques. Entre évolutions générales portuaires et transpositions régionales, l’objectif de cet article est d’observer cette combinaison de caractéristiques dans le système portuaire ouest-africain. L’évolution de ce système s’inscrit dans une trajectoire d’insertion au réseau maritime mais qui implique une adaptation des opérateurs internationaux de transport aux caractéristiques de l’espace ouest-africain. Cette trajectoire portuaire dans l’espace régional permet de repérer une géographie d’opérateurs qui modifie les conditions de la desserte des territoires.

Africa and the Americas: Interconnections during the Slave Trade

This is an ambitious collective volume based on papers presented at a conference in 2000 at York University on the interactions between Africa and the Americas. Such connections have been themes in the historiography of the Atlantic world in varying degrees for the last several decades, particularly related to the African diaspora. The authors identify three stages of scholarly interest. On the oldest view, Europeans were mainly responsible for the creation of the Atlantic world. During the second stage, scholars identified and highlighted the role of Africans and their descendants as active participants in and contributors to the emerging Atlantic world. In the latest stage, scholars have begun to examine and demonstrate the “interactive linkages” across the Atlantic in which Africans and Europeans in Brazil (the editors emphasize Brazilians but the model can encompass many others) spent time in the Americas, were changed by their experiences, and returned or moved to Africa to influence developments there.Of the essays in this volume, three fit perfectly into stage three. Coleen E. Kriger reviews the literature of the study of African culture and calls for extending the agenda of stage-three scholarship by using more sophisticated methods of analysis and interpretation of Africa’s role in the Atlantic world and how it changed Africa. José Capela offers a case study showing the influence that connections with Brazil had on Mozambique in the period from the mid-seventeenth century into the nineteenth century, when people and ideas moved back and forth from Mozambique to Brazil, with ancillary ties to Angola and metropolitan Portugal. Elisée Soumonni examines the comparative and contrasting experiences and influences of the Afro-Brazilian communities in the West African ports of Ouidah and Lagos. The demographic essay by David Eltis, Stephen Behrendt, and David Richardson expands knowledge of the carrying of slaves to the Americas and highlights the significant Portuguese role in that trade.The remainder of the volume’s essays fit more closely into the second stage, as most are case studies of African adaptation to and/or influence on the American societies they entered and helped to develop. The essays generally emphasize West Africa and Brazil, but there are several exceptions. Jane Landers surveys the communities formed by fugitive slaves throughout Spanish America as well as Brazil and shows how their members fused African groups and their traditions into hybrid communities with blended cultural and political constructions.Four essays show African influence on spiritual syntheses in the Americas. Elizabeth Kiddy demonstrates how Africans adapted to European religious forms by participating in Christian lay brotherhoods. Luis Nicolau Parés probes the influence of the African roots of Candomblé in the influence of the hierarchy of African divinities and cults from several West African cultures. The experience of the slave voyage across the Atlantic, Monica Schuler suggests, helped form African systems of belief in the Caribbean and the vision of a potential return to an idealized African homeland. Terry Rey reveals how African religious forms, especially those from the kingdom of Kongo, contributed to the evolution of beliefs and the agendas of three religiously inspired rebels in Saint-Domingue. Dale T. Graden investigates how Afro-Brazilians participated in the abolitionist movement in Brazil. João J. Reis reminds us that class identity influenced politics and at times trumped ethnic identity.All in all, this is a valuable collection by experts making full use of the tools of their fields. It reveals the contemporary development of ways of understanding the complexities of the Atlantic world and shows the evolution toward stage three studies.