Increased economic activity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has given rise to increased demand for port development. Given the often scarce availability of national public funding, port institutional reform programs have been implemented to pave the way for the inclusion of external port investors. Notwithstanding this fact, some sub-Saharan African Governments remain institutionally locked into the notion that state-owned enterprises remain an appropriate vehicle for port terminal operations. This, despite the fact that terminal operational concessions globally and within the continent of Africa are increasingly being managed by global terminal operators.
Given this context, the latest port study by PortEconomics members Theo Notteboom and Darren Fraser along with Thando Mpikeleli, aims to evaluate different port valuation and funding strategies.
Two research questions form the core of this research: what is the financial value of a concession? What is the most cost advantageous funding strategy? The methodology is applied to the development of a two-berth container terminal in SSA.
The port study has been published in the scientific journal Maritime Business Review and as it is an open-access publication, you can freely download it by accessing the journal’s website.
