The King of Morocco His Majesty Mohammed VI has made a bold and a significant move to help the three landlocked West African Countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger use Moroccan Ports for the movement of goods in and out of the countries.
The development follows a meeting with Foreign Affairs ministers of the three countries at his Royal Palace in Rabat this week.
The foreign ministers of the three countries of the Alliance of Sahel States included Karamoko Jean Marie Traoré, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation, and Burkinabe Nationals Abroad of Burkina Faso; Abdoulaye Diop, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Mali; and Bakary Yaou Sangaré, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, and Nigerians Abroad of the Transitional Government of the Republic of Niger.
This audience is said to fall within the framework of the Kingdom’s strong and longstanding relations with the three sister countries of the Alliance of Sahel States, relations that have always been characterized by sincere friendship, mutual respect, active solidarity, and fruitful cooperation.
This nod by the King to have the three national access the Moroccan ports is significant in many ways.
For beginners, Tangiers MED III opened mid 2019 on the shores of the Mediterranean is Africa’s largest Port and with its huge capacity, Morocco will be able to drive huge cargo to match its capacity even as the three countries get relief after disengaging with the West Africa Economic bloc the ECOWAS.
Tangiers MED II has the capacity to handle 9 million containers, 3 million passengers, 700,000 trucks and 1 million vehicles.
Other than transport logistics, Tangier MED is an industrial platform for more than 900 companies, representing an annual business volume of Sh830 billion.
The project was completed at a cost of Sh80 billion through a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) that can easily and efficiently serve an additional total population of 72 million people from the three nations.
When Morocco opened Africa’s largest Sea Port in July 2019 at the Tangiers Med III on the shores of Mediterranean Sea, the continent was upbeat about easing trade between Africa Countries especially against the backdrop of the Africa Free Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
It is in tandem with the King’s vision and policy to have Africa trade with herself for the benefits of her people.
The port is located on the Strait of Gibraltar and connected to 186 other ports globally and is today bigger than other African giant ports including Port Said in Egypt and Durban in South Africa.
“We want to establish a business hub and build a network of global trade routes that link Africa to the rest of the world for everyone’s economic benefit,” said Mehdi Tazi Riffi, Tangiers MED III port’s General Manager during the launch.
Crucial to this strategy is the twinning of ports in Africa with Tangiers MED III where countries including Kenya can have access to European markets should they have products such as tea and coffee processed at the Moroccan port.
