This work involves the evaluation of dry port competitiveness through analysis of efficiencies for selected dry ports in Africa. Five dry ports were selected and analysis carried out over a period of four years. The dry ports considered were Mojo and Kality in Ethiopia, Mombasa in Kenya, Isaka in Tanzania and Casablanca in Casablanca, Morocco. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was applied for this work. Container throughputs for the various ports under consideration were used as the output variable for the data analysis model, while the number of reach stackers, the number of tractors, the number of forklifts and the size of the dry port were used as the input variables. From the results, the Mombasa dry port was found to be the most efficient with an average score of approximately 1 over the period under consideration. Casablanca was the second efficient dry port with an average score of 0.762, while Isaka was the least efficient with an average score of 0.142. This research is significant since the African countries have embraced the dry port concept, as witnessed in the huge investments in this sector, and would serve to highlight areas that need improvement for the few existing dry port facilities, most of which are undergoing expansion as well as modernization.
The present study measured the relative efficiency of five major commercial ports in West Africa, using three different Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methods, the CCR, BCC, and Windows I-C methods over the years 2005-2016. Seven input variables and one output variable were used in the model analysis. The CCR and BCC methods were used to evaluate the technical and scale efficiency while the Windows I-C method provided a comprehensive ranking of the studied ports. The results showed that the scale efficiency score of 89.53% indicated that on average the production scale of the ports had deviated from the most productive scale size (MPSS) by 10.47%. These results revealed that the source of the overall inefficiency is due to scale rather than pure technical inefficiency. Hence, in order to improve the overall efficiency, the two scaled inefficient ports of Abidjan and Cotonou should adjust their scale of operations. Then, further investigations were conducted to detect correlations between various variables used in this study. The research found that the absence of any correlation for non-significant variables and negative correlation for the significant variables throughout time resulted from the fact that these variables were not fully utilized. Meaning that they were not efficiently used to boost the container throughput on a scale basis, the research also found that a pandemic or insecurity could easily impact seaports activities with the case of the Ebola outbreak which strucked the West African region from the year 2013 to 2016, or the terrorism threats which prevailed in the region around the year 2012. Thus, for ports to stand out in the present fiercely competitive environment, ports authorities ought to analyze their operational scale to identify whether or not the production size is fitting before further port capacity expansion.
The aim of this paper is to select the best location for the construction of a dry port in Niger which is a land locked country (LLC). Niger is located in the Sahel and has a land area of 1,267,000 square kilometers [1], with the closest port being port of Cotonou in Benin. The transport corridor from Niamey to Cotonou is approximately 1036 km long [2]. It is estimated that this corridor carries about 40 percent of Niger's overseas trade traffic [3]. In this work, the Analytic Network Process (ANP) model is used to determine the optimal location of the dry port, among three major cities: Niamey (capital city), Dosso and Gaya. From the application of this selection model, Dosso was selected as the best location for the location of the dry port, while Gaya and Niamey were placed second and third respectively. The results obtained in this work strongly confirm the decision of the government of Niger to construct a dry port in Dosso, a project that commenced in 2010 and is still in progress.
The paper studied 5 transport corridors in West
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