DP World is reducing shipping costs in Africa one country at a time

DP World is reducing shipping costs in Africa one country at a time

Dubai: Dubai-based port operator DP World has reduced the time and cost taken to ship goods within Africa, according to its CEO and Chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem. DP World operates the Kigali logistics platform, which connects Rwanda to neighbouring landlocked countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Uganda. “It used to take two weeks and around $5,000-$7,000 to transfer a container, but since we started our operations, it takes a day and the cost has come down to $2,800,” said Sulayem, during the World Government Summit in Dubai. “Africa is a continent with huge opportunities, but infrastructure is a big problem,” he added. Last year, DP World also announced the acquisition of South Africa-based Imperial Logistics, a company with operations mainly across the African continent and in Europe. The move is expected to enhance DP World’s capabilities, particularly in Africa, building on its extensive infrastructure of ports, terminals and economic zones. “They deliver cargo and they do something that we never did before — it is called contract manufacturing, where they just manufacture a commodity instead of supplying it,” said Sulayem. In the aftermath of the pandemic, DP World launched cutting-edge online logistics tools and services,