Bollore Group to invest in Abidjan

In an interview with Reuters, Dominique Lafont, Chief of the group’s Africa operations, explained, “Our aim is to make Abidjan port the key sea gateway for the countries of the hinterland”.

He explained that beyond that date, the group intends trebling the facility’s 550,000 teu capacity, which, in the longer term, could increase to 1.5m teu. At the same time Bollore wishes to overhaul the Cote d’Ivoire’s railway track that leads into Ouagadougou in neighbouring Burkina Faso.

Abidjan has remained a strategic centre for the export of cocoa, with almost half of the supplies from the world’s largest grower passing through the port.