Africa's gateways and the hinterlands behind them.
A port is only as useful as the corridor it feeds. We track both — quay-side throughput and the inland routes that carry cargo to the markets that consume it.
The ports that move African trade.
Each profile links to the shipments discharged or loaded there, with cargo mix and recurring consignees.
Lagos — Apapa
Primary import gateway for West Africa's largest consumer market.
Lagos — Lekki Deep Sea
Deep-water terminal absorbing larger vessels and transhipment volume.
Tema
Cocoa export gateway and principal container terminal.
Takoradi
Bulk, energy and mineral exports with growing container share.
Mombasa
East Africa's largest gateway, serving five landlocked economies.
Dar es Salaam
Central corridor gateway for Zambia, DRC and Malawi.
Djibouti
Effectively Ethiopia's seaport, handling the bulk of its trade.
Dakar
Francophone West African hub with strong fisheries and retail flows.
Gateway throughput at a glance.
| Port | Container throughput | Dominant direction | Hinterland reach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lagos — Apapa | 1.1M TEU | Import | South-west and northern Nigeria |
| Lekki Deep Sea | 620K TEU | Import | Lagos metropolitan and transhipment |
| Mombasa | 1.6M TEU | Import | Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan |
| Dar es Salaam | 900K TEU | Import | Tanzania, Zambia, DRC, Malawi |
| Tema | 1.2M TEU | Balanced | Ghana and Burkina Faso |
| Djibouti | 950K TEU | Import | Ethiopia |
| Dakar | 800K TEU | Balanced | Senegal and Mali |
Beyond throughput counts.
Vessel and carrier calls
Which lines call regularly, at what frequency, and with what typical parcel size.
Cargo mix
Break-down by HS chapter so you can see whether a port is a consumer gateway or an industrial one.
Recurring consignees
The importers and exporters that consistently use each terminal.
Inland corridor linkage
Where cargo goes after the gate, based on declared destinations.
Regional context
How each gateway compares with its nearest competing port on the same coast.
Trend view
Rolling twelve-month movement so shifts between gateways are visible early.
Volume moves between ports before it moves between countries.
When congestion, tariff changes or a new terminal alters the economics of a gateway, cargo reroutes long before national statistics register the shift. Port-level records show it first.
- Spot cargo migrating from a congested terminal to an alternative
- Quantify the ramp-up of a newly commissioned deep-water port
- Plan trucking and warehousing around real discharge patterns
- Support terminal investment cases with independent evidence
Questions, answered.
Are throughput figures official port authority numbers?
No. Platform figures are aggregated from shipment records so they reconcile with the consignments you can inspect. Published authority totals may differ in scope and timing.
Do you track dwell time?
Where filings include arrival and clearance timestamps, we derive indicative dwell. Coverage varies by market and is labelled per record.
Which ports are next?
Abidjan, Lomé, Cotonou and Port Sudan are in build. The countries page tracks status.