The small West African nation of Togo is not known for being the most advanced or richest in the region. The economies of large neighbors like Nigeria and Ghana greatly exceed that of Togo in size and performance. but the Lome port is efficient.
Humble begining
However, one thing the Togolese can be proud of today is their country’s port infrastructure. From very humble beginnings, the Port of Lomé has risen through the ranks in recent years to become West Africa’s most important transhipment hub, finally surpassing Lagos in 2017.
In just four years, the Togolese port more than tripled its cargo throughput handling. it rose from 311,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in 2013 to nearly 1,200,000 TEU in 2017. Cargo handling in most other regional ports either stagnated or dwindled during this same period.
The Lomé port is now the most important transhipment hub in West Africa. This is according to the port ranking for the region was published by Dutch company Dynamar. This spells great opportunities for Togo.
The investing
Aware of the potential economic gains that this position allows, the Togolese government is pushing for investment in further expanding the port’s capacity. and following recent announcements, China’s intends to invest up to USD60 billion in infrastructure in Africa over the next three years. Togo’s leaders have pledged to try to secure funding for the expansion of the N°1 National Road (RN1) and the creation of a dry port in the northern part of the country. This initiative will connect the Port of Lomé to the hinterland and opening the door to even greater business.
The successes of the Lomé port, however, did not come by chance. Built by a German consortium and inaugurated in 1968, the port saw extensive expansion over the decades. It boasts as West Africa’s only natural deep water port with a 15-meter deep quay. Since the dawn of the 21st century, Lomé was managed by the international French group Bolore. Bolore invested over EUR450 million in the construction of a third quay for the port in 2012.
An article on the Togolese website 27avril.com from 2014 raised the question. Asking whether Bolore would have been so forthcoming with that investment if it knew that a consortium composed by China Merchants Port Holdings (CMPort) and Global Terminal Limited (GTL) would be given an exploration license for a new container terminal there soon after.
This put an end to Bolore’s monopoly over the transshipment business in the area. The agreement covered the construction and exploitation of the new Lomé Container Terminal (LCT) worth EUR225 million. This project included a 1,050 and 1,350-meter long quays. Regardless of what this move might have meant for Bolore’s business in Togo, the impact of the new container terminal, operating since 2014, was profound.
Throughputs
By 2017, LCT processed 75% of all the cargo going through the port of Lomé, to the tune of 890 thousand TUE per year. The facility is responsible for the Lomé port achieving the status of West Africa’s biggest port. It also helped the country enter the African top five of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) ranking. According to the organization’s report, Togo’s performance has more than doubled since 2010. Starting from 14.2 points on the index in 2018 to scoring 35.9 points recently.
According to news reports, CMPort, China’s biggest port operator, has been recording strong growth in recent years. The broke the record of over 100 million TEU of processed cargo in 2017. A considerable part of the registered growth came from its assets in China. However, overseas facilities have also greatly contributed for this business expansion with LCT leading the year on year growth record at 67.5%. LCT is followed by the Colombo International Container Terminal in Sri Lanka, which grew by 18.5% compared to the previous year.
Container volume in West Africa has registered a compound growth of over 10% per year over the past 15 years. This figure has been declining in recent years. Nonetheless, the sector is expected to grow by 5% annually in the run-up to 2021. This will give ample opportunity for the port of Lomé to continue to grow its influence in the region. Further helping to establish Togo as the transshipment center of the Gulf of Guinea and West Africa.
credits: This article was first posted on thebusinessyear online magazine
