The infrastructure throughout sub-Saharan Africa requires additional investments of billions per year to be brought up to par. In particular, the region’s ports are a bottleneck and contribute to lengthy delays that significantly increase the cost of doing business across the continent.
So wouldn’t it be sensible to invest in a massive extension of port facilities all over Africa? Probably not. As my colleagues and I show in our recent paper, “Why Does Cargo Spend Weeks in Sub-Saharan African Ports?”  it is actually the  collusion between controlling agencies, port authorities, private terminal operators, logistics operators, and large shippers that poses the biggest challenge to the efficient handling of goods. 
It is the governance of the ports that matters most, not the large-scale investments in infrastructure. Here are the facts: Cargo dwells in sub-Saharan ports unusually long—more than two weeks on average, compared to under a week in large ports in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
Excluding Durban and Mombasa, the average amount of time cargo dwells in sub-Saharan ports is close to 20 days (Table 1). These long wait times hurt the efficiency of port operations and the economy in general.
Source: Brookings

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