Forum of Port Stakeholders and the Private Sector: Portus on Senegal's ambition to become a logistics hub

The Forum of Port Stakeholders and the Private Sector, held in Dakar on 19 and 20 July 2022, brought together the principal public and private actors of the Senegalese port sector to examine the challenges and opportunities facing the country's economic and logistics development.

Youssef Imghi took part as a panellist, contributing his experience of port and logistics infrastructure development. The debates covered regional land corridors and the maritime conditions required for a hub in Senegal.

Governance before infrastructure

He set out the strategies he considers necessary to strengthen Senegal's position as an industrial and logistics hub by 2035, and placed governance and collaboration between the public and private sectors at the centre of any effective implementation of the national port strategy.

• Governance capable of carrying the national port strategy through to implementation
• Genuine collaboration between public and private actors, not consultation alone
• An ecosystem of services around the port, not the terminal on its own
• Competent human capital to sustain the sector's development

The 2035 horizon

The forum let Portus contribute to a debate about what would actually make Senegal a reference hub in Africa. On the evidence of two days of discussion, the answer has as much to do with institutions and trained people as with anything that gets built.