It now takes 45 mn to process customs clearance in the free trade zone ! That’s what I call a game changer 4 the AfCFTA.
According to a new global container port performance index compiled by the World Bank and IHS Markit, the port is the most efficient in Africa measured by minutes per container move.
It is a small country of barren mountains and desert, Djibouti is on the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb on the north-east edge of Africa. This is where 30 per cent of the world’s shipping passes through a chokepoint on its way to the Suez Canal and the Red Sea.
Wedged between Ethiopia, Eritrea, the self-declared independent state of Somaliland and the sea, Djibouti has become a linchpin of global commerce, thanks to these ports.
Its economy is forecast to grow by 7 per cent this year, one of the fastest rates in Africa. Over the past 15 years, the country has tried to capitalise on its strength and location to become a hub for international trade and logistics.
Djibouti’s port dream to become the ‘Singapore of Africa’
Location and stability reinforce the small desert nation’s ambitions to be a leading maritime trading hub
Such efficiency means Djibouti’s goal of emulating Singapore as a leading maritime trading hub is within reach.
According to a new global container port performance index compiled by the World Bank and IHS Markit, the port is the most efficient in Africa measured by minutes per container move.
A small country of barren mountains and desert, Djibouti is on the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb on the north-east edge of Africa.
This is where 30 per cent of the world’s shipping passes through a chokepoint on its way to the Suez Canal and the Red Sea.
The small country has been developing so many ports because there is a demand and it is attracting more and more transshipments.
Wedged between Ethiopia, Eritrea, the self-declared independent state of Somaliland and the sea, Djibouti has become a linchpin of global commerce, thanks to these ports. Its economy is forecast to grow by 7 per cent this year, one of the fastest rates in Africa.
Over the past 15 years, the country has tried to capitalise on its strength and location to become a hub for international trade and logistics.
Carl Lorenz, managing director for eastern Africa at AP Moller-Maersk, the world’s biggest container shipping group, believes Djibouti’s container terminal is “among the most productive” in Africa.
More than 1m containers a year pass through the six port terminals of Djibouti.
Djibouti, viewed by analysts as a stable anomaly in the unstable Horn of Africa, also recently set up a sovereign wealth fund, for domestic investment, aiming to finance about $1.5bn of business activity over the next decade.
In the past 10 years, Djibouti has attracted some $4bn in investment — from China, Gulf countries and the US, among others — into ports, oil and gas terminals, free trade zones and a 750km rail line that can carry 2,600 tonnes of wheat and fertilisers and 110 containers per trip to Ethiopia.
As a key transshipment venue, Djibouti “serves most ports on the east coast of Africa all the way to Durban in South Africa”, explains Dawit Michael Gebre-ab, senior director of strategic planning at Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority.
Moreover, such a strategic location makes Djibouti home to military bases, earning it $125m a year in rents from the US, China, France, Japan and Italy combined. A former French colony that became independent in 1977 and with a population of almost 1m, Djibouti also provides a critical lifeline for landlocked Ethiopia and its fast-growing population of 114m.
Surprise Africa Report
