DP World to Manage Somaliland Port for 30 Years
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
May 30, 2016
DP World has reached an agreement to manage the Berbera port in Somaliland, which would allow it to become a major hub for goods to transit to and from the Horn of Africa, the Wall Street Journal reported.
DP World signed a US$442 million agreement with the government of Somaliland to develop and operate a regional trade and logistics hub at the Port of Berbera.
Under the terms of the deal, the newspaper citing a person who has seen the document, Somaliland will grant the Dubai-based company the right to manage the Red Sea port of Berbera for 30 years.
DP World is bullish on Africa and will expand further across the continent following a deal to create a new gateway in Somaliland, on its eastern coast.
"I am very bullish about Africa and I believe it still has a very huge potential," the DP World chairman Sultan bin Sulayem said.
"The reason why we go to Africa is because we get a lot of knowledge and experience and they are the two factors for success."
The agreement comes as part of a larger government-to-government memorandum of understanding between the Dubai and the government of the Republic of Somaliland to further strengthen their strategic ties.
DP World has existing operations in Senegal, Egypt, Mozambique, Djibouti and Algeria, and Berbera port will be the eighth DP world operation in Africa when completed.
Over past five years DP World has invested over $1 billion in capex and added 2,275,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEU) of capacity at its terminals in Africa, bringing the total annual capacity to 6.2 million TEU.
