Africa’s richest man highlights a problem that affects both West and Central Africa

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, recently highlighted an issue that affects Africa’s Western and Central regions.

• Aliko Dangote emphasized the shortage of port infrastructure in West and Central Africa.
• He highlighted long waiting times for ships to discharge goods, especially in Côte d’Ivoire.
• Dangote urged more private sector investment in port construction, suggesting governments should focus on collecting revenues.
• He mentioned ongoing support from the Nigerian Ports Authority for projects like the Lekki Free Trade Zone.

While speaking during the Mid-Year Session of the Board of Directors of the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa, in Lagos, the Nigerian billionaire noted that the mutual problem in question is the lack of an adequate number of ports.

Following up on his revelation, Dangote noted that major investments are required to plug the gap in the port infrastructures of the West and Central African regions, as reported by the Punch.

What Dangote said

“My own is actually to continue to encourage you to encourage people to come and invest in ports because, really, we are running short of ports, especially in West and Central Africa.

In some areas where we go to discharge our goods, especially in Côte d’Ivoire, I think we wait for three weeks.

And I think you need to encourage entrepreneurs to invest. The government has no business investing in ports.

What you need to do is actually to encourage entrepreneurs to invest heavily so that your own revenues will increase. You should be good at collecting revenues, not building ports.

So, you should encourage the private sector to build its ports,” the Nigerian industrialist stated.

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He further added, “The good news is that the MD of NPA has actually been encouraging us to build the Lekki Free Trade Zone.

But I can assure you that the Lekki Free Trade Zone will be the largest, deepest seaport in Africa. Not in West Africa, in Africa.

We just concluded discussions two days ago with the President of Tanzania. We also want to build another port. Now, we are taking ports as our own business.

Before, we were just doing it as part of our operations, but right now, we will be the biggest African supplier of logistics going forward.”