Import Transit Corridors of Landlocked Countries in West Africa

Qualitative and quantitative trade information on West Africa has remained a scarce resource for several decades. Thus, seaports in the region, that are maritime corridors to the landlocked countries (LLCs) of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, compete in a vacuum without any reliable basis to assess their individual competitiveness vis-à-vis the regional market. This book, therefore, provides an analysis of transit trade and transport with emphasis on five seaports used by the three LLCs in West Africa. It assesses the LLCs seaborne trade type, volume, distribution and growth trend, and examines the competitive status of each of the transit corridors on the basis of regional share of transit traffic, distance, infrastructure, logistics costs, legal and institutional framework and overall quality of service. The book provides sufficient and necessary overview of the transit trade and transport sub-sector in West Africa. It can serve as a working document for a sustainable transit trade development in any corridor and would, therefore, be useful to maritime trade and transport sector professionals, researchers and policy makers of both coastal and landlocked countries.