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New terminal to be built at Abidjan Port in Côte d’Ivoire

With the new container terminal, Abidjan Ports capacity would increase significantly. (Image source: Christian Lambert/Flickr)

Three banks have raised US$272mn to construct a second container terminal at the Abidjan Port in Côte d’Ivoire

According to a Reuters report, the deal to construct the terminal was awarded to a group comprising French industrial firms Bollore and Bouygues, and a subsidiary of the Danish shipping major Maersk.

Souleymane Diarrassouba, director general of West African financial conglomerate Banque Atlantique, said that the bank has raised US$136.21mn, while French bank Societe Generale and Egypt’s Afreximbank have given US$68.1mn each for the construction.

Local reports have stated that the construction is part of a government expansion project worth US$2.5bn, which includes the enlargement of the Vridi Canal and expansion of a minerals unit as well.

The new terminal is expected to boost capacity at the Abidjan Port, which is already one of Africa’s busiest. The port registered a total tonnage surpassing 21mn tonnes in 2013. In 2012, it handled 21.7mn tonnes — a 31 per cent increase from 2011. During this time, container traffic also expanded by 16 per cent to 633,917 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

Post expansion, the port can handle 2.25mn TEUs, which would make it West Africa’s largest, in terms of capacity.