Dubai Ports Company DP World and the UK’s CDC are investing $ 1.7 billion in Africa’s infrastructure.
The investment will modernize three DP World-run ports: Ain Sokhna in Egypt, Dakar in Senegal and Berbera in Somalia, according to the CDC.
The joint investment will be expanded to other African countries, which DP World and the CDC hope will boost the continent’s domestic and foreign trade.
“We have a common vision with DP World, which is to invest in as many ports across the continent as possible,” CDC CEO Tenbite Ermias told Reuters.
The partnership between the two companies also plans to invest in infrastructure, such as container warehouses and commercial hubs.
The partnership, along with the modernization and expansions at the ports, is expected to boost trade in the three territories, as well as further inland in Mali in West Africa and Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday. They intend spending about $1 billion on the port in Dakar alone.
“In the short term, it’s about enhancing the capacity of these three countries,” Nick O’Donohoe, CDC’s chief executive officer, said in an interview. “In the longer term, it is about building out further ports infrastructure in other countries, other regions.”
CDC will own a minority stake in the operating structure of the three ports, O’Donohoe said, declining to be more specific on the partnership.
