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At the head of a strong delegation, the President of the Republic of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum went to the port of Cotonou on Monday, March 13, 2023 in the afternoon. This is within the framework of his two-day working visit to Benin.
The visit of the delegation of Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum to the Autonomous Port of Cotonou, accompanied by ministers, senior officials and economic operators, took place in two (2) major stages. This is, first, the presentation of the Master Plan of the Port and the major works in progress, the purpose of which is to increase the capacity of the Port of Cotonou up to 25 million tonnes at the end of the works. This presentation was held in the conference room of the General Directorate of the Autonomous Port of Cotonou. It was followed by the field visit, led by a government delegation from Benin. This delegation is made up of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Aurélien Agbénonci, the Minister of State in charge of the Economy and Finance, Romuald Wadagni, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Hervé Hèhomey and the Minister of ‘Industry and Commerce, Alimatou Assouman. According to the point of this visit made by Minister Hervé Hèhomey, President Bazoum is satisfied with the achievements of the government. “We have just visited the Port of Cotonou, after a presentation of port activities, in particular the major projects that we are developing at the Port. We presented to the President of Niger what the Port will be by 2025-2026. We have shown the new port development projects, the extension of the port basin, the capacity of the Port which will be increased to 25 million tons”, he said. As for the visit to the port, the port spaces, the assignments, the terminals, as it is distributed according to the new Master Plan are covered. “We insisted on Port performance issues, in particular handling issues, the management of our terminals. There are spaces that we are reallocating for Port productivity. We also talked about the “Grand Nokoué” logistics park which will be built in Abomey-Calavi, in particular in Akassato, in the area dedicated to this. There are 36 to 40 hectares that will be used for that,” he said. The Minister also specified that the port logistics zone, which is a production zone with high added value, was presented to him. “All these projects that we are doing have interested the President of the Republic of Niger. Niger is our first partner at the Port of Cotonou with more than 2 million 300 thousand tons. It is important. Niger is well ahead, so they are our privileged partners and the visit went well,” rejoiced Hervé Hèhomey.
Alban Tchalla