Conakry, a small port, will become a big one.
- Gabriel SOUNOUVOU
- 7 juil.
- 5 min de lecture
There's something almost romantic about the fate of the port of Conakry. An enclave on the Atlantic, clinging to the peninsula, that welcomes the whole world into its arms—containers, bulk carriers, vehicles, ambitions—without ever having arms big enough to embrace it all. The latest international rankings state it plainly. But rankings measure the past. What is being built here looks to the future.
According to the 2025 edition of the Container Port Performance Index (CPPI), published jointly by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence, the Autonomous Port of Conakry (PAC) ranks 399th out of 400 ports assessed worldwide—ahead of only the Port of Cape Town, South Africa. Within the continent, it ranks 53rd out of 54 African ports evaluated. The figure is stark. It circulates, it hurts, it is repeated endlessly. But it doesn't tell the whole story.
To understand Conakry, one must be willing to look back. The port never lacked traffic—it was the infrastructure that was lacking. For decades, the docks aged while volumes grew, and the equipment struggled to keep pace with an economy that, willingly or not, was opening up to the world. This is the classic syndrome of sub-Saharan African ports: the market is short, and concrete works.
Congestion, identified by the World Bank as the main cause of the decline, reflects the combined effects of disruptions to international shipping routes and chronic saturation. But this saturation is also a sign of an attractiveness that few would have predicted ten years ago. In just a few years, the port of Conakry has gone from three regular maritime services to six. Shipping companies have increased the number of port calls.
"The traffic volume expected in 2030 was achieved in 2025." — Aly Koïta, Director General of the Autonomous Port of Conakry, June 24, 2026
The terminal handled approximately 300,000 containers in 2023, compared to over 400,000 in 2025, with projections exceeding 500,000 TEUs in 2026. All this with only one main quay operational. Just one. Therein lies the paradox: Conakry, a small port, big numbers, and an infrastructure overwhelmed by its own success. Congestion is not an admission of weakness—it's the growing pain of a living organism, too full too soon.
The digital turning point: when data precedes concrete
Modernization isn't just measured in tons or linear meters of dock space. It's also reflected in lines of code, in digital forms, in the screens that have replaced dusty counters.
The GUCEG — Guinea's Single Window for Foreign Trade, deployed by Webb Fontaine — embodies this quiet yet persistent transformation. Established in September 2019 in partnership with Webb Fontaine, it covers pre-clearance, electronic payment, and port community system, reducing the time it takes for goods to leave the port from 21 days to 5 days for compliant operators.
In November 2024, the Ministry of Budget officially led the presentation of the progress of the Port Community System (PCS), integrated into the GUCEG electronic platform.According to testimonials published by GUCEG, significant time savings are already being observed among consignees, port terminals, freight forwarders, and public administrations. The presence of this tool has even mitigated the crisis observed at the port of Conakry. During the GUCEG 360 Impact forum held on Friday, June 26, 2026, the Minister of Economy, Finance, and Budget, Mariama Ciré Sylla, reiterated that the full implementation of the PCS is a non-negotiable priority.
Designed to automate and centralize data between different port stakeholders, the PCS is also part of the preparation of logistics structures to support the Simandou 2040 program.
With GUCEG, digital pre-clearance, electronic payment of duties and taxes, stopovers, cargo manifests, movement of goods, various authorizations, electronic tracking of goods in transit: dematerialization is gradually extending to the entire logistics chain.
These reforms are quiet. They don't generate headlines. But they are transforming, step by step, the lived reality of the economic operators who keep Guinean commerce running on a daily basis. They must be adopted 100%.
New docks, a port community that is consolidating
The physical construction work is underway. A new quay and more than twenty hectares of additional space are to be progressively brought into service between the end of 2026 and the beginning of 2028, with the ambition of doubling the capacity.
But beyond the metal and the cement, perhaps the real novelty lies in the human element. The port community of Conakry—authorities, concession holders, customs, freight forwarders, shipowners, GUCEG—meets regularly to speak frankly about the current situation. They are increasingly united, more clear-sighted, and hopefully, more supportive than ever.
The port authorities implemented 24/7 operations to overcome the 2025 crisis. The accumulated experience is now attracting attention beyond national borders: Sierra Leone has sought Conakry's expertise to manage its own port growth. A port that exports its expertise, even in adversity: this is a sign that rankings don't tell the whole story.
Far from the noise of the rankings
Rankings have their uses. They signal, they alert, they force awareness. But they measure the past — the IPPC 2025 edition is based on performance recorded in 2025 — at the precise moment when the port was the most congested in its history, precisely because it was the most used in its history.
Aly Koïta points out that Conakry was ranked the leading port in West Africa three times in a row, ahead of the major ports of Nigeria and Dakar. This history isn't mere nostalgia—it's a structural indicator. A port that has once been number one can regain its competitiveness, especially when its foundations are being rebuilt.
The port authorities, the concession holder, and their partners agree on the interpretation: the 2025 IPPC ranking reflects exceptional operational stresses, not an irreversible structural decline. A recovery is expected as early as the 2027 IPPC edition.
The small port will become a big one. It already handles nearly 400,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) per year with just one main quay. It is digitizing. It is expanding. It is coming together.
And far from the noise of rankings, far from the figures that momentarily freeze what is in motion, it continues, day after day, to bring the world into Guinea. This is often how great ports grow—in the shadow of the charts, in the quiet brilliance of the work being done.
— Gabriel SOUNOUVOU · Flux Africa
Sources :
[1] World Bank & S&P Global Market Intelligence — IPPC 2025 / Container Port Performance Index
[2] Africa Guinea — PAC Press Briefing, DG Aly Koïta, June 24, 2026
[3] Guinea360 — CPPI 2025 Ranking: PAC puts things into perspective and announces a recovery by 2027
[4] Guinean Ministry of Budget — Launch of the Port Community System (PCS) by GUCEG, November 2024
[5] Ledjely — Aly Koïta responds to the CPPI 2025 ranking, June 2026