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Djibouti slams World Bank for ranking its port 379th globally

An aerial view of Djibouti sea port. (Photo: Courtesy)

By Mwangi Maina | Friday, June 7, 2024

Meanwhile, Kenya's largest port, Mombasa, experienced a decline in its ranking, falling to 328 out of the 348 ports evaluated worldwide.

Djibouti has challenged the recent findings of the global Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) 2024, which ranked its ports at 379th globally.

In a televised statement, the Djibouti government accused the World Bank of bias in its assessment, calling the ranking unjustified and unacceptable.

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"The Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority has noted with profound indignation the latest findings published in the World Bank's Container Performance Report, which ranks the port of Djibouti at 379th, a drastic and unjustified decline from our previous ranking of 26th," the Ports and Free Zones Authority said.

The statement added, "We express our strong disapproval of this report, which we believe grossly misrepresents the true status of our facilities and the quality of services we provide."

"What is even more shocking is that our port has not been ranked or represented in the Sub-Saharan Africa Region Ranking, despite being recognised as the top-ranked port in this region for the past three years by the World Bank. This omission is both perplexing and unacceptable."

According to the statement, Djibouti's ports are renowned for their efficiency and strategic significance in facilitating international trade, particularly in connecting Africa with global markets.

"This reputation has been solidified through consistent performance and significant investment in infrastructure and technology, such as our advanced Maritime Single Window system that facilitates seamless trade operations."

The CPPI report, released annually, assesses the performance of container ports worldwide based on various criteria such as efficiency, productivity, and infrastructure.

The fourth iteration of the CPPI, developed by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence, is based on the largest-ever dataset, comprising over 182,000 vessel calls, around 238.2 million moves, and approximately 381 million twenty-foot equivalents (TEUs) for the full 2023 calendar year.

It ranks 405 global container ports by efficiency, focusing on container vessels' port stay duration.

The latest edition shows East and Southeast Asian ports leading the pack in 2023, with 13 out of the top 20 spots.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the latest report ranks Berbera port in Somaliland as the top-performing port, coming in at 106 globally.

Meanwhile, Kenya's largest port, Mombasa, experienced a decline in its ranking, falling to 328 out of the 348 ports evaluated worldwide.

This marks a significant drop for the port, which held the 326th position in the previous report and is even further from its standing in 2021 when it ranked 296th.