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like Zimbabwe and Mozambique during running all the way from Zambia crossing He spoke of Benin’s intention to make
the Southern Africa Railway Association into Zimbabwe up to the port of Durban in it an industrial hub and cited the variety of
(SARA) Conference and Exhibition in South Africa and that means we may have products that the port may handle in the
October 2022. to look into standardising the type of rail near future.
“We have greenfield projects connecting that we are operating,” he added. “Today there are a lot of basic and
Nseluka all the way to Mpulungu which The consensus among the African low-value products being moved through
gives us access to the Great Lakes region political landscape for the logistics the Port of Cotonou. On the import
and Kafue in Zambia to Lion’s Den in connectivity that Tayali mentioned is also side, there are a lot of clinkers, gypsum,
Zimbabwe which gives us the shortest visible in the development of new ports and raw materials for the cement industry,
route to the Port of Beira in Mozambique. modernisation of the old ones. construction materials, and food items like
We also got Livingstone (on Zimbabwe For example, since 2018, Benin's Port rice and wheat. On the export side, cotton
border) to Sesheke (on Nambia border) as Cotonou is under the management of (Benin is the largest exporter of cotton
well as from Livingstone to Kazungula (on the Port of Antwerp International as the in Africa), wood, cashew nuts and shea
Botswana border) connecting to Botswana,” Government of Benin entered into a nine- butter nuts. Moving forward there’s a whole
he said in an interview given to Railways year agreement after realising that it needed governmental initiative to make Benin also
Africa Magazine. a makeover to ensure more volumes and an industrial hub by developing industrial
He noted that there is a growing become future-ready. In fact, the contract zones whereby the raw materials that are
consensus among African nations and is now entering into an exciting period currently being exported will be processed
his country’s leadership to increase of execution after three years of studies, in Benin and the finished or semi-finished
connectivity. “We have come to the preparations and planning. products will be exported to the rest of the
realisation that we need to make strides to “We are building a new terminal for bulk world,” he added.
open up and interconnect our continent and break bulk operations, we are extending Even as the trade world is witnessing
in order for us to achieve the African free our port basin to create additional container optimism, attention and intention
trade area which is very important for us to capacity and we are creating a value-added being put into the funding of ports and
explore the market within ourselves before logistics zone. By a couple of years we will terminal infrastructure or in building rail
we can look beyond,” he added. be ready for the future of the next 20-30 connectivity into the landlocked countries
During the event, he also batted for the years,” said, Port Cotonou’s commercial or inviting foreign expertise to plan, there
uniformity of not only technology but also director Kristof van den Branden, who was still seems to be a long road of development
in terms of the standard of trains running recruited via Port of Antwerp for the job, and deliverables waiting to happen for
through these countries. who was speaking at the Breakbulk Europe African ports before they can become a
“So that we are able to get a train in May 2022 at Rotterdam. force to reckon with in the continent.

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