Cargo delays a permanent feature at African ports

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The World Bank has done an interesting study on the dwell times in African ports (average – 20 days). It shows that Africa’s infrastructure ‘gap’ costs it about 2% of the continent’s GDP each year. One of the problems is the money that’s made out of storage charges at ports, which contributes to long dwell times, and makes actions such as building more berths ineffective at speeding up the process. If you are involved in shipping to and from African ports, incidentally, it’s well worth taking a look at Port Overview, a service which informs you of delays and incidents.