The French maritime transport giant proposes to build a new terminal and logistics facilities on the Kenyan port hub, saturated but which is a coveted access to a rapidly growing landlocked region. A reflection of his ambitions on the continent.
This was the surprise announcement of the Africa Forward summit, co-organized in mid-May in Nairobi by France and Kenya. So unexpected, it was whispered in the Kenyan capital, that even the local CMA CGM teams had not heard of it. It was made public at a press conference by Emmanuel Macron on May 10, on the eve of the opening of the summit: the signing of a partnership with the Kenyan government for an investment of about 700 million euros in Mombasa, the country’s first port and one of the main logistics hubs on the eastern facade of Africa. A perfect illustration of the central theme of this summit, dear to the French president: the confidence of French companies in the potential of the continent.
Few details, however, then filtered on this project with a significant amount (since then revised to 700 million dollars, or about 615 million euros), concerning a site that is now public and highly strategic. The port of Mombasa, on the Indian Ocean, serves not only Kenya, an economic locomotive of East Africa with 55 million inhabitants, but also the landlocked countries of the hinterland such as Uganda, Rwanda and to the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo – not far, on paper, 200 million consumers. The next day, May 11, CMA CGM welcomed a « strategic partnership to collaborate in the development of major transportation infrastructures.
