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Approved project

Praia-Dakar Shipping and Maritime Services Project

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Basic Information

Project Title	Praia-Dakar Shipping and Maritime Services Project
PIDA Sector	Transport
PIDA Sub-sector	Water Transport
Member States	Cape Verde, Cote d'ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone
Region	Western Africa
Beneficiary Countries	Cape Verde, Senegal
Regional Economic Community	Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
Project Institution	ECOWAS Commission, Senegal Ministry of Fisheries and Maritime Economy and Cabo Verde Ministry of Economy and Employment

Strategic Alignment and Regional Commitment

Source in the National Master Plan	Senegal National Development Plan
Source in the REC Master Plan	ECOWAS Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan
Brief Description of the Project	Cabo Verde is the only Island Country in the ECOWAS Community. Several Summits of ECOWAS Authority Heads of State and Government have called for projects and policies to strengthen the physical integration of Cabo Verde to the markets and economies of other mainland ECOWAS. A priority in the ECOWAS Infrastructure Development Master Plan is therefore to establish an efficient and effective Shipping and Maritime Service from the Ports of Cabo Verde to Dakar and other aligning Ports of Member States. In support of this, the governments of the Republic of Senegal and the Republic of Cabo Verde signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 28 April 2015 to confirm the willingness of both governments to assess opportunities to improve bilateral trade. In order to promote increased commercial activity, both countries intend to invest in shipping infrastructure. In this context, the establishment of a regular maritime link between the two countries could promote maritime transport and intensify trade. The Praia-Dakar Maritime Transport Service is part of of the Praia-Dakar-Abidjan Corridor Development Program, as well as more than 3,500 kilometres Highway from Dakar and Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire, crosses five (5) other West African countries (Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia). This corridor was also identified as one of PIDA's main priority projects and labelled as Trans-African Highway 7 (TAH 7) which was to link THE TAH 8 that stretches from Lagos through Yaounde, Bangui, Kampala and Nairobi to the port city of Mombasa in Kenya, East Africa.
Objective and Rationale for the Project	Among the key policy measures needed to address ECOWAS infrastructure challenges, through Article 32 of the Revised Treaty of 1993, aimed at the development of transport infrastructure and policies within Member States to facilitate the free movement of people, goods and services in the community, is the Praia-Dakar-Abidjan Corridor Programme, established through the Treaty Signed in June 2017, on the margins of the 51st Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government. The key components of the Praia-Dakar-Abidjan Corridor Programme are: • The construction of a 6-lane highway from Dakar to Abidjan; • Establishing a Maritime link to connect Cabo-Verde to the coastal countries of West Africa; • Rail Development; and • The economic development initiatives of the corridor. Regarding the second component of the establishment of the maritime link link linking the Cabo-Verde Island Republic to other ECOWAS countries, the Governments of the Republic of Senegal and the Republic of Cabo-Verde had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 28 April 2015 to confirm their willingness to explore ways to improve their bilateral trade. In this context, the establishment of a regular maritime link between PRAIA and DAKAR has been chosen to improve maritime transport services, in order to boost trade and promote the integration of Cabo-Verde into the ECOWAS area. To this end, the ECOWAS Commission has set up the development programme of the Praia-Dakar-Abidjan Corridor, one of whose projects is the development of a maritime link between Praia and Dakar. The objectives of the maritime link project between Praia and Dakar are:  Creating a maritime transport service between Cape Verde and the ECOWAS area with a direct and regular connection could significantly reduce the transit time of goods and improve the business climate but also generate additional freight and passenger flows into the ECOWAS area.  Strengthen trade and economic cooperation between Cabo Verde and West Africa.  Facilitate the safe, efficient and competitive movement of people and goods to boost intra-regional and international trade by improving marine infrastructure and equipment.
Location/Site	Between Praia and Dakar covering over 660 kilometres of Maritime Link between the island port of Praia, Cape Verde and Dakar in Senegal
Image/Map Files	LAGOS-DAKAR.jpg PRAIA-DAKAR2.jpg.png
Existing or Planned Projects along the proposed project	The project serves a planned infrastructure asset of another sector, but there is more than 50% overlap in the geography serviced by the proposed project and the other sector planned asset.
Please provide more details for your choice above	The project runs along 100% of the alignment of a Project in the telecoms sector which is the Construction of the Amilcar Cabral submarine fiber optic linking 5 ECOWAS countries (Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia). This project is already at the Feasibility Stage.
Technical Specifications of the Project	A preliminary feasibility study was conducted with an analysis of the following factors: Traffic volume: Macroeconomic analysis In order to understand the general economic trends of the two countries, a macro-economic analysis for Cabo Verde and Senegal was undertaken. Macroeconomic analysis of Cape Verde and Senegal indicates that both countries plan to continue à̀ show strong GDP growth. Shipping is one of the sectors for investment, including the development of shipping services. Fleet and Operators: Historic Initiatives, Current Fleet and Current Initiatives An evaluation of the historical initiatives, the fleet and current operators as well as current initiatives was carried out. At present, there are no regular direct services connecting Dakar and Praia. Freight is transported by non-regular vessels (polyvalents/cargo ships, RoRo vessels), by containers (chartered or transported via the Gibraltar area or Las Palmas), or by bulk carriers (chartered). There is no service for maritime passenger transport. Five types of vessels were evaluated for this potential new service: collection vessel, multi-purpose vessel, ConRo, RoPax and Fast Ferry. The evaluation's findings are:  The identified demand is rather fragmented: small lots, potential for trucks and passenger vehicles, containers (refrigerated) (on wheels), passenger interests (business and leisure);  A RoPax vessel shows the highest potential to match supply and demand for transport and has therefore been evaluated in detail. There is a need for a fairly large RoPax that offers seats, cabins and in-flight entertainment. This type of ship is suitable for long-distance shipping services worldwide;  Break-even - fare thresholds are determined for a 120m RoPax vessel. These 50% payload fares show that the proposed round-trip fare scales for passengers and vehicles (truck-trailer) range from US$143-200 for a passenger to US$278-297 for a vehicle;  The result of the benchmark is that even if 70% of revenues will have to be generated by passengers and a payload of 50%, the price of the sea ticket is lower than the low case of airfares and the low case of the freight cargo fare, as calculated for Dakar-Praia (round trip).
Market Size	About 200 million of the 350 million West African population is expected to be impacted.
Project Financial (in USD)	ESTIMATED CAPEX USD56 million.....................USD$1,200,000.00 (Transaction Advisory & Technical Studies)
Gender Procurement actions	A significant number of traders commuting between Praia and Dakar by air transport are women. These women face a lot of challenges, high transportation costs by Air and harassment over the excess luggage by airlines which have limited cargo capacity from Dakar and other Airports. The estabslihment of Several women are also involved in cross border trade along the Dakar-Abidjan Corridor or sections of it. Between Senegal and Gambia, several female traders undertake weekly trips with their goods. Same happens among the other Corridor Countries. Data collected by Observatory of abnormal practices such as the Borderless Alliance has shown that such traders are faced by various degrees of obstacles to movement including bad road infrastructure, informal charges/bribes, border delays and harassment. The following is envisaged to increase the opportunities of Women: 1. Specific criterion in evaluating tenders to reward women participation in key personnel for consultants 2. ESIA Studies as part of the Feasibility & Detailed Design Studies to ensure will identify areas to address gender issues. 3. With the improvement of the Corridor, it is expected to reduce travel time, cost and improve reliability for traders and other users.
Last Milestone Known	S2B - Feasibility

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