Somaliland: Berbera Crucial to EU’s Global Gateway Support to Transport Corridors in Africa

[Deeq A.]

The envisaged transport corridors run in over 30 African countries and were announced in February 2022 at the European Union – African Union summit in Brussels as part of the investment package of the Global Gateway – the EU’s strategy to boost smart, clean and secure connections in digital, energy and transport sectors across the world.

EU Global Gateway support to strengthen transport and trade between Africa and Europe

Somalilandsun: The EU’s JRC has officially recognized the #BerberaCorridor as a strategic African trade route under the Global Gateway.

#Berbera now stands as a vital hub linking ,  &  to  unlocking investment, infrastructure, and international visibility.

This was revealed by the European Union’s Joint Research Centre-JRC in a REPORT that informed of the 10 Ports deemed relevent to EU Global Gateway support to strengthen transport and trade between Africa and Europe programme.

The JRC assessment of eleven transport corridors in Africa identified promising areas for investment namely

1. Abidjan-Lagos (West Africa) – Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria;

2. Abidjan-Ouagadougou (West Africa) – Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso;

3. Praia-Dakar-Abidjan (West Africa) – Cabo Verde, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire;

4. Cotonou-Niamey (West Africa): Benin, Niger;

5. Libreville-Kribi-Douala-N’Djamena (Central Africa) – São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Chad;

6. Douala-Kribi-Bangui-Kisangani-Kampala (Central Africa) – Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda;

7. Dar es Salaam-Nairobi-Addis Ababa-Berbera-Djibouti (East Africa) – Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti;

8. Mombasa-Kisangani (East Africa) – Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo;

9. Maputo-Gaborone-Walvis Bay-Lüderitz (Southern Africa) – Mozambique, South Africa, Eswatini, Botswana, Namibia;

10. Durban-Lusaka-Lubumbashi (Southern Africa) – South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo;

11. Cairo-Khartoum-Juba-Kampala (North and East Africa) – Egypt, Soudan, South Sudan and Uganda. The assessment of this corridor has been postponed.

12. Lobito-Kolwezi-Lubumbashi-Solwezi-Ndola (Southern Africa) – Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia.

EU Global Gateway support to strengthen transport and trade between Africa and Europe

The following main conclusions have been drawn:

1. All 11 shortlisted corridors are attractive for investments.

2. The largest benefits are expected from interventions in transport infrastructure and accessibility.

3. The investments in reducing carbon footprint and preserving biodiversity also appear quite promising.

4. The most challenging area for intervention seems to be digitalisation. Synergies with investments in transport and accessibility could be exploited, to reduce the cost of digitalisation interventions.

5. The challenges in boosting productivity appear as the most diverse ones and need to be further assessed by corridors, areas and sectors. A potential high-productivity cluster is identified in Western Africa.

6. Large urban agglomerations and major transport and logistics infrastructure entities often demonstrate different intervention profiles from the remaining wide corridor area. Additional in-depth studies are needed to better understand their specific challenges, opportunities and trade-offs. Read more HERE

 

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