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Gambia: the port of Banjul is suffocating for lack of space
Audio 03:35
View of the port of Banjul.
© RFI/Milan Berckmans
By: RFI Follow
5 mins
Located at the mouth of the Gambia River, close to Casamance, Guinea-Bissau, but also Mali, the main Gambian port of Banjul enjoys a strategic position in West Africa.
But as soon as the volume of goods increases, as has been the case since the departure of President Yahya Jammeh, the port suffocates for lack of space.
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From our correspondent in Banjul,
Milan Berckmans
On the quays of the port of Banjul, the workers of the day shelter from the rain in empty containers.
The comings and goings of bad weather punctuate the opening of the holds of a large tonnage ship transporting rice, and prevent its unloading.
Keitah Senghore, shipping agent for a large port logistics group, explains that "
the problem is that we have had rain since 8 a.m., and a large tonnage ship like that is not possible to open it, because it's bulk.
It can rot.
»
For this transport manager, who employs around fifty men a day, it's not just the rain that causes delays.
The other big problem is the lack of space on the platforms.
"
As you can see, we only have two or three platforms, A and B, and then number one
", shows Keitah Senghore.
“
And so we cannot take more than three boats per call, which can dock.
»
Terminals that often exceed their capacity
Offshore, other cargo vessels await their turn to unload their contents at one of the four slots.
An interminable wait, which can sometimes last up to four weeks.
On the other site, the container trucks follow one another slowly in the rain to unload the large metal boxes on dry land.
Amadou Saal, logistics manager, gives an idea of the current performance.
“
It depends, because sometimes you can unload more than 100, maybe 150 containers, and then sometimes it's less.
Like yesterday, we were able to unload only 34 containers
.
»
On the other side of the port, Buba Njie, import container control manager, shows us around the terminal he is in charge of.
Here, container ships take turns 24 hours a day to try to unclog the three terminals which often exceed their capacity, as Buba Njie explains.
"
The capacity of the terminal is normally around 1,500 containers, here we have 2,000, sometimes we will have almost 3,000. And that's when it gets out of control
," says Buba Njie.
► To read also: Gennevilliers, logistics node at the gates of Paris
Expansions to double port capacity
To respond to these multiple problems, the port authorities have drawn
up an expansion plan
which includes building new quays, accelerating the digitization of port management, but also building a new terminal to accommodate more containers.
And it is on this last point that the Gambian authorities have mainly worked on the acquisition of private properties located near the port.
On the roofs of the port authority, Landing Sanyang, manager of the port's business services, takes inventory.
“
We have this extension which is about 18,000 square meters and more, this Muslim school and an annex of a public technical school.
In total, we will be around 70,000 square meters
, ”he says.
According to Landing Sanyang, these extensions would double the port's capacity in the next five years, making room for some 4,000 more containers.
But for Nyang Njie, economist, this expansion strategy has its limits, we must see in the long term.
The problem now is:
will this land be enough for the expansion that is required?
And
my answer is
no,
because Banjul is still small, and if we anticipate that in 15 to 20 years, trade volumes will increase, it would have been ideal for the Gambian government to build a brand new port outside of Banjul, but also to set aside land for future expansions.
► To read also: The port of Gdańsk, the dream of a hub for Eastern Europe
Towards a relocation of the port
The other main reason for port authorities to consider locating these activities outside of Banjul is the risk of flooding and rising waters.
In 2020, the journal
Nature
even predicted that in the event of a sharp rise in global temperatures, the city would be completely drowned by 2100.
Port Authority Director-General Ousman Jobarteh replies that for financial reasons, the expansion of the port in Banjul will continue for about 20 years, but that relocation thereafter is an option that strongly interests the Gambian government.
The place would even have already been chosen on the coast, in the south of the country.
"Regarding the port's infrastructure, there are clear expectations: once the volumes of goods captured have reached a certain threshold, we can look into relocating the port to the coast in the south of the country, where there are deep waters.
The place has already been identified.
»
According to Ousman Jobarteh, the construction of the new port should cost around 500 million dollars.
In the meantime, faced with long waiting times for deliveries at the port – between 10 days and four weeks – many companies in The Gambia are choosing to go through other ports in the region, which are more efficient and less expensive.
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