Project Case Study
Preparing an expert report on the ports of Djibouti
Conducting a report into state ownership in African ports
Djibouti, situated by one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, controls a large proportion of the access to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
It also manages approximately 70% of Ethiopia’s trade, operates a number of free trade policies and serves as a refuelling and transit hub for many of the ships passing through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.
Consequently its ports are some of the busiest in the world.
Djibouti was one of the first countries in Africa to switch to a ‘landlord’ system of port ownership, standard in Northern Europe, where the state have a minimal share, providing only basic infrastructure such as breakwaters or channel dredging. The remainder of port activity is managed by private sector participators.
In 2012, we were commissioned to provide an expert position paper on the distribution and ownership of ports across sub-Saharan Africa, in which we provided a number of recommendations for the government of Djibouti.
