Africa > West Africa > Transportation

Transportation in West Africa

  • Four-fold capacity increase and international collaborations raise Abidjan Port’s competitiveness

    ABIDJAN, 2017/05/28 Four-fold capacity increase and international collaborations raise Abidjan Port’s competitiveness Côte d’Ivoire’s economic strategies over the completed five years have seen the country’s prosperity surge and there are presently plans to capitalize on this by improving not just domestic trade but as well international exports. A key factor in this plan is the increasingly influential port at Abidjan, once one of the African country’s most significant industrial links. Although the impact of the political and military crisis that hit the country impacted operations at the port, significant investments are presently being made that are once again enabling Côte d’Ivoire government to put the facility back on the regional map. Hien Yacouba Sie, Managing Director of Abidjan Port Authority, is quick to point out the historical importance of the port, although he as well admits that it has suffered from a lack of investment in additional recent years. “During the 1980s the national’s resources, which declined following the drop in the cost of raw materials and other socio-political problems, meant that the port suffered from a lack of investment ,” he explains.
  • Nigeria: Govt Sacks All Directors in Civil Aviation Authority

    NIGERIA, 2017/02/26 The Federal Government on Friday announced the sack of all the directors in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Country newspaper is reporting. The removal of the officials is with immediate result, the paper said. The Minister of National for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, announced the development, and directed the affected officials to instantly hand over to those next in command in their various directorates, the statement said.
  • Dubai’s Emirates Resumes Services to Guinea

    GUINEA, 2016/11/28 Emirates airline resumed flights to Guinea’s capital Conakry additional than two years next the service was suspended following the Ebola outbreak in the West African country. The Dubai based airline said the flight to Conakry will be linked to the carrier’s four times weekly service between Dubai and Dakar. “The flight to Conakry will be linked to Emirates’ four times weekly service between Dubai and Dakar, and will once again provide both business and leisure travelers in Guinea world connectivity through the airline’s network,” Emirates said in a statement.
  • Nigeria: Piracy in Nigeria

    NIGERIA, 2016/11/19 The event followed a presently familiar pattern: a small convoy of dusty 4×4 vehicles drove on to the edge of the airstrip at Galkayo in Puntland, north-central Somalia; armed security guards took up watchful positions nearby and a number of bemused-looking men stepped gingerly from the cars and lined up to have their photographs taken by the media.
  • Naira woes affecting air travel, businesses in Nigeria

    NIGERIA, 2016/10/29 Travel and Tour agencies inclunding domestic and international airlines operating in Nigeria are having a hard time keeping their businesses afloat as the crisis with the country’s currency, the naira, deepens. Nigeria is facing its initial recession in over twenty years brought on by the slump in oil prices. This has led to cuts in government revenue and chronic shortages of the US dollar. As a result of the currency crisis, some airlines are reducing the number of flights to Nigeria while others like United Airlines and Iberia stopped flying to Nigeria before this year.
  • As it expands in Africa, Uber adapts to local markets and adopts cash payments

    BOTSWANA, 2016/07/24 While Uber continues its push into Africa the company is making allowances to local markets and testing incomparable service models users wouldn’t see in other parts of the globe. Anyone can presently use the mobile app to hail a car in 12 cities across South Africa, Nigeria,Uganda, Kenya, Morocco and Egypt…. And in all of those nations users can pay drivers in hard cash. The expansion, and adaptation to the realities of doing business on-the-ground in Africa, are in line with CEO Travis Kalanick’s commitment late last year to “a large push in Africa.”
  • Routes Africa forum aims to improve African air connectivity

    BOTSWANA, 2016/05/15  An event dedicated to the development of the African aviation industry will take place next month in Tenerife (26-28 June) to encourage the launch of new air services to, from and within the African continent. Routes Africa 2016 will help to improve African connectivity by bringing together airlines, airports and tourism authorities to discuss next air services. Around 250 route development professionals are expected to attend the forum which was founded ten years ago to stimulate increase in the industry.
  • American company restructures Cape Vedean airline’s debts

    CAPE VERDE, 2016/01/26 Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) will re-hire US consultancy Brown Rudni to negotiate and restructure the debts of flagship airline Transportes Aéreos de Cabo Verde (TACV). The Boston law firm provided advisory services to TACV a the end of last year to study the company’s restructuring in order to “reduce costs and improve efficiency in management and operations.”
  • Nigeria: 15 Airports Get Satellite Navigation

    NIGERIA, 2015/10/09 The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has unveiled the Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) approaches for 15 Nigerian airports. As part of the drive to implement the PBN, which is a satellite-based navigation system, the agency has as well published the Standard Arrival Routes (STARs) and Standard Instrument Departure Routes (SIDs) for the Benin airport. The said publication, according to the agency, enables duly equipped aircraft with the necessary approval from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to fly PBN procedures into the airports without the use of ground navigational aids.
  • Guinea-Bissau launches international tender for managment of port of Bissau

    GUINEA-BISSAU, 2015/07/12 The Guinea-Bissau government launched an international tender to transfer management of the port of Bissau to private entities, the Secretary of National for Transport and Communications said Wednesday. João Bernardo Vieira, on a visit to the project to pave the container park, said handing over port management to private entities aimed to turn it into a modern and competitive facility compared to other ports in the region. The secretary of national as well said the decision to launch a public tender for a public/private partnership for the management of Guinea-Bissau Ports (APGB) was taken at the conference of the Council of Ministers on 2 July and he said it “was not an easy one to make” and involved a thorough evaluation over 12 months.