Aboubacar Sedikh Beye,
Director General, Port Autonome de Dakar (PAD)
The Port Autonome de Dakar (PAD), which is located in the heart of the Senegalese capital, started a development, modernization and decentralization plan that is both necessary and ambitious especially considering the intense competition. At the end of 2017, Aboubacar Sedikh Beye was appointed Director General and it took him just a few months to fine-tune his strategy. What are the major challenges in making Senegal’s PAD the leading logistics hub in West Africa?
In this globalized economy, several trends are guiding international relations: a key word is “gigantic” because ship owners are constantly seeking economies of scale that can consolidate the sector through mergers and acquisition, the regionalization of trade, and the development of hubs that push ports to increase their reception capacity and increase inland multimodal transportation. Digitalization is also accelerating ship reception and cargo throughput. The increased involvement of the private sector has hastened the development of the port terminals. The port authority is well aware of its inland potentials and wants to develop its position on the African west coast. The latest vision sees PAD as a “driver of emergence” whose final goal is to create a new port complex that can receive the latest generation container vessels. PAD is already well assured that Senegal will reach its goal, i.e. to become the main logistics hub of West Africa. Ndayane, the new port has the great advantage of being one of the deepest on the West African coast and is next to an integrated economic zone that is coupled with the urban conglomeration of Diamniadio and also the Blaise Diagne International Airport (AIBD). These platforms allow Dakar to serve as the logistics hub for Senegal and even more importantly, for the sub-region. How can you explain the incredible improvement and the record numbers that PAD registered in the 2018 and 2019 financial years?
Immediately after the strategic plan was introduced on 28 June 2018, the port launched its structural transformation project. It was a hard, but successful, fight during the second half of 2018 to stop the financial hemorrhage and start rational, urgent work projects. One of the projects focused on “cost-killing” or streamlining operating costs and optimizing the activities by revising tariffs. This improved PAD finances and paved the way to the implementation of large-scale projects such as upgrading the port to its present level, better roads and truck traffic management, and the creation of new spaces. More good news is that PAD has also improved its ranking with WARA. Now that its financial health has been recovered, PAD is authorized to take out and personally guarantee a loan on the bond market for the third time. This financial boost will be used to build roads and various infrastructure and to ready the Port Industrial Zone to receive its first investors. This fund-raising exercise was a big success with 157.71% of targeted subscription rate. The public offering was closed early since it had received over 94 billion CFA francs while the target had been 60 billion. What are the main goals and objectives of the 2019-2023 Strategic Plan?
In 2018, the Port’s management started a thorough restructuring and re-energizing project, which led to the preparation of the 2019-2023 Strategic Plan. By launching this new vision “a port, driver of emergence” PAD supports the objectives set out in the PSE: improve customer satisfaction by 39 points on the Net Promoter Score (NPS); double the sales figure (from 49 billion CFA francs in 2017 to 100 billion), improve profitability by fivefold (from 3% to 15%), and improve the fluidity of operations in the PAD. In order to work towards these goals, five strategic actions were identified: securing and developing the offer; making transit smoother; improving the client’s experience; optimizing management and building up human resources; strengthening governance.
