Monrovia port begins 24-hour operations

With new equipment that includes 12 offshore buoys and two land-based range markers, installed at approximately $500,000, the Monrovia Free Port has resumed 24-hour port access put off since three decades ago.

Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, officially inaugurated the new port navigation system. The absence of buoys, lighting and electronic navigation systems had limited port access to daylight hours.

According to the Managing Director, APM Terminals Liberia, Mr. George Adjei, “the return to 24-hour accessibility to the port is another major milestone in the development of the Liberian economy as a global trading partner, and increases the ability of APM Terminals Liberia to serve the people and businesses of Liberia, and the region.”

Online maritime platform, Ships&Ports, noted that APM Terminals began operations at the Port of Monrovia in February 2011 under a 25-year concession agreement, under which $120 million would be invested in port upgrade. Over $100 million is said to have been invested to date.

Approximately 350 vessels call at the Port of Monrovia annually, with APM Terminals Liberia handling approximately 95 per cent of the country’s trade, which includes 800,000 metric tons of general cargo and containerised trade, while container throughput at the facility was 98,000 TEUs in 2015.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) formally approved Liberia’s membership on December 16, 2015 during the162-member group’s 10th Ministerial Conference in Nairobi, and with the Liberian Government’s formalisation of the country’s WTO Protocol of Ascension on June 15, the nation will become WTO’s 163rd member nation 30 days after WTO receives the notification.