Restrictions of West African seaborne trade: A case study on West African leading ports

Except in South Africa, the port systems of Sub-Saharan Africa have not kept up with the rising volume or international trade, or with regulatory and technological practices related to trade. The performance of the region?s ports lags substantially behind that of other world regions. Several of the ports in the study group have exceeded their designed capacity limits, while others are approaching those limits. Although international container liner operators have proved a strong catalyst for the port development in the region slow progress in the institutional and regulatory reform has stifled the efficiency gains that might otherwise be expected from the new practices introduced by operators.The economic contribution of modern infrastructure to move growing volumes of trade is well illustrated by the region?s oil-export terminals, which are globally competitive in terms of their costs. Generalizing that level of performance through the implementation of modern supply-chain processes could greatly expand the contribution of the region?s ports to efficient transport and overall economic activity.The last 6 years is also marked by the growing entrance of Turkish industrials and manufacturers into the African market. Although, their presence is not balanced considering the different regions, they detain a no neglectable part in the supply of textile commodities and, more importantly, construction materials especially in the West African region. This tendency is meant to increase year after year. The potential is huge for the Turkish exporters if they want to sustain their presence in the African market where Chinese and other emerging country are already operating.Therefore, considering the above challenges, the purpose of this research is to reveal the problems which are likely to help those including Turkish traders to take proper precaution in their seaborne trade with, mainly the West African trading area and to bring the spotlights on the lack of competitiveness of certain West African countries may hopefully push the decision-maker to take action in order to improve their service quality and their abilities in protecting their business being extracted from their competitors.