Economy

Senegal president says finance constraints lifted for DP World’s $1.1 bln port

• ِAfrikeconomy
• Thursday 2 February 2023

Senegal’s President Macky Sall said on Thursday that financing is in place to enable construction to begin in earnest on a $1.13 billion deep-water port being developed by Dubai’s state-owned port operator DP World.

• #Économy
• #African Union

The project in Ndayane, around 50 kilometer (31 miles) south of the capital Dakar, is the biggest private investment in the West African nation.
“We have lifted all the constraints linked to financing, and the state has met all its obligations so that this major project can start,” Sall told a summit on infrastructure finance in Africa, held in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.
“We hope that this February, we’ll start the work on the site.”
The project is a joint venture between the Dubai-based logistics provider and the Port Authority of Dakar.
The partners broke ground in January 2022, but further discussions on finance and legal matters were needed after Sall decided to lift Senegal’s stake from 10 percent to 40 percent, Abdou Karim Diarra, a spokesman for Dakar Port Authority, said.
DP World has said the first phase will include 840 meters of quay and a 5 kilometer marine channel designed to handle 366-meter vessels, with a second phase adding 410 meters of container quay and further dredging to handle 400-meter vessels.
The two-day infrastructure summit of African leaders, investors and development finance partners, aims to raise financing to accelerate infrastructure projects on the continent.