African Development Bank approves €60m loan to finance Lomé Container Terminal to boost regional trade in West Africa

The African Development Bank has agreed to release an amount of €60 million loan to finance the construction of a new container terminal at the Lome Port in Togo to boost regional trade and integration in West Africa.

According to the Bank’s Board of Directors which approved the loan on July 15, 2011, the project involves the construction, development and operation of a new transshipment container handling terminal.

The Lome port is one of the few deep water ports in Western and Central Africa and it serves as a gateway to landlocked Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, as well as the northern parts of Nigeria because of its ideal location.

With an existing capacity estimated at 221,000 container units, the AfDB says “This has to be expanded to meet growing Togolese needs and regional demand from Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, while Nigeria’s cross-border trade that is also projected to increase would also benefit from the facility.”

The project will be executed under a 35-year concession agreement  by Lomé Container Terminal S.A, a Togolese company, and will have an annual handling capacity of 1.5 million 20-feet container units.

By Ekow Quandzie