OREANDA-NEWS. As African economies boom, infrastructure improvements become more important to turning the growth into sustainable development. The Group CEO toured Nigeria, Angola and Ghana last week to put a focus on Maersk's role in this transition.

The port of Tema is a critical artery for trade into and out of Ghana, handling 85% of all seaborne freight traffic for the West African nation. But unless it is expanded, container volumes will surpass the port's structural capacity in the next two years, hampering Ghana's economic development.

This was just one of Group CEO Nils S. Andersen's talking points as he met with political leaders, customers, and Maersk business heads last week in Ghana, Nigeria and Angola. All three are rich with natural resources, yet are looking to build up other vital sectors of their economies like agriculture and manufacturing.

"Maersk has a long history and growing presence across shipping and energy on the African continent and certainly in all three of these countries," says Andersen.

"The Group has a tremendous opportunity to prove that our values, expertise and breadth of services make us an ideal partner for achieving the sustainable growth these countries are pursuing."

Investing for the long-term

In Nigeria, the Group CEO met with President Goodluck Jonathan and his most senior minsters and later presided over the official groundbreaking for the expansion of Apapa terminal in Lagos, West Africa's largest container terminal. The expansion ensures sufficient capacity for the port until 2017.

"We are aggressively expanding other sectors of the economy, to reduce dependence on oil and increase exports," President Jonathan said at the meeting, adding that he hopes the expansion of the terminal will help the port improve its efficiency and enable it to clear all goods from the port within 48 hours of arrival, compared to today's seven day average.

In Angola, Andersen met with Vice President Manuel Vicente. With eight Maersk business units active in Angola, including the four largest (Line, Terminals, Oil and Drilling), Angola is an important country for Maersk, with growth planned for the APM Terminals and for Maersk Oil, which is heading for first production in the Chissonga oil field before the end of 2018.

Encouraging customer feedback

Meetings with executives from two oil majors were particularly gratifying, according to the Group CEO.

"I'm very proud to say both of these customers spoke highly of the work Maersk Drilling and Maersk Supply Service are doing for them in Angola. That is great to hear, and precisely what we hope to hear from our customers, especially in such a fiercely competitive market and region as this," said Andersen.