The port of Maio, in the archipelago in the central Atlantic Ocean, was recently upgraded after successful completion of the rehabilitation of its jetty, the construction of a roll-on, roll-off platform for ships, and associated access roads.<\/p>\n
Maio\u2019s modernisation has now reduced the period it takes to travel by sea the 49km distance between Praia, the capital city of Cape Verde, to Maio island, from three hours to less than an hour. Moreover, the maritime transportation of goods such as salt, cheese, fish and other tradeable Cape Verdean commodities has been eased.<\/p>\n
Marine protection<\/strong><\/p>\n Inauguration of the upgraded Maio port in late September 2022 by the President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, also boosted the global visibility of Cape Verde\u2019s Maio Biosphere Reserve that contains the entire island and its six protected marine zones, which include Maio Island Natural Park and Cimi-dor Lagoon Natural Reserve.<\/p>\n Maio Biosphere Reserve is home to turtles, cetaceans, and fishes such as the lemon shark and tiger shark according to the United Nations Environmental Programme (Unep). The UN agency also says the island hosts more than 256 different kind of animals, including three lizard species, with more than 100 varieties of migratory birds visiting the region every year.<\/p>\n The modernised port has also made travel to the Maio Biosphere Reserve easier for visiting tourists.<\/p>\n Cape Verde\u2019s tourist industry accounts for 25% of the island nation\u2019s GDP, 23% of formal jobs and 55% of the nation\u2019s exports.<\/p>\n \u201cMaio has great potential for sustainable tourism and a good balance between the environment and the economy,\u201d said Jos\u00e9 Ulisses de Pina Correia e Silva, prime minister, Cape Verde.<\/p>\n In 2019, Cabo Verde received 48,500 cruise ship passengers on 147 ships, according to the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce.<\/p>\n In the first quarter of 2022, Cabo Verde received 25 port calls from cruise ships and 17,693 passengers.<\/p>\n AfDB, which provided \u20ac17.87 million to fund the project, says Maio port is critical for the growth of maritime transportation Cape Verde \u201cgiven its geographic location.\u201d<\/p>\n Maio has become an integral part of the 3,164km Praia\u2013Dakar\u2013Abidjan corridor, one of the 11 strategic transport corridors that largely benefits Cape Verde and Senegal. The corridor is being supported under the Global Gateway Europe-Africa investment package announced at the European Union-African Union summit that was held in Brussels between 17 and 18 February 2022.<\/p>\n The cost of the modernisation of the port runs to an estimated cost of \u20ac36 million, with AfDB providing \u20ac17.87 million while the Bank\u2019s strategic partner, the European Union, financed the project with \u20ac11 million to complement the \u20ac7.8 million provided by Cabo Verde government.<\/p>\n For AfDB\u2019s Dr Adesina, inauguration of Maio port marked yet another milestone for Cape Verde, which is currently in the process entering into a licensing contract for the management of all the country\u2019s nine ports.<\/p>\n \u201cThis beautiful port will transform the face of the economy of Maio,\u201d said Dr Adesina, adding, the port \u201cwill become better connected to the rest of the country, rapidly expanding business and economic opportunities and boosting tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, AfDB is also financing the upgrading of Cape Verde\u2019s Palmeira port, which when fully completed, will complement Maio port\u2019s passenger and cargo capacity with the annual number of sea-bound passengers expected to grow by 34%, from 41,700 to over 55,000 in 2024. Merchandise traffic is also expected to rise by 184%, from 150,900 to 429,000 tonnes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shem Oirere looks at how a Cape Verde port has been modernised to achieve shorter transit times and lower CO2 emissions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[289,834,356],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-2952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-greenport","tag-africa","tag-cape-verde","tag-short-sea-shipping"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2954,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2952\/revisions\/2954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2952"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=2952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}