The development of port hierarchy in West-Africa

The global maritime industry is a dynamic field of business that has seen fundamental changes in recent years such as globalization, containerization and impressive growth rates in seaborne transport volumes. Moreover, the fate of ports is more and more determined by outsiders, such as shipping lines and freight-forwarders. These port users choose their port of call based on numerous selection criteria, such as efficiency, infrastructure and location. These choices change the existing hierarchal port network that is generally organized in hub-and-spoke systems with each port being classified according to its characteristics. This thesis investigates the development of the hierarchy in the West-African port system focused on the ports of Tema, Abidjan, Dakar and Lagos. A factor that is specifically important for this region is the level of political instability. It can be concluded that the port of Abidjan is most preferable in attaining the future status of West-African hub port. Lagos shows promising developments as well, although their high level of political instability is a major challenge they have to tackle first.