Risk Management in Transport PPP Projects
In the Islamic Countries
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infrastructure to the China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC), the time plan was extended
to 2021, with the completion of all infrastructure works by the Port Authority planned for 2020,
leaving one year for the works for the superstructure by the contractor.
In the construction phase, no major issues have been reported. The works for the widening and
deepening of the channel were completed in early 2019, in line with the revised time plan;
currently the civil works for the preparation of the terminal are ongoing, while the works for the
equipment of the terminal (assigned to the private party) have not yet started. On the side of the
state, the Port of Abidjan is in charge of the monitoring and supervision of the construction works,
and has in place a number of measures for a proper management of the construction risks,
such as:
 Audit are performed periodically, with minimum annual frequency, or more frequently
if needed; audits are performed directly by the Port Authority, that has the technical and
managerial skills required for controlling works in the domain of port infrastructure;
 A risk matrix was developed to allow the identification of possible sources of risks, and
this is still in use to manage risks in the construction phase;
 Annual reports concerning the progress of works are delivered to the Ministry of
Transport, and ministry of budget is also involved to control expenditures.
Finally, although not required by the Ivorian Regulation, both the port and the terminal operator
are certified for quality and environment (ISO 9001 and ISO 14000).
Overall, the PPP for the second terminal container in the Port of Abidjan is so far considered
successful, as the overall project allowed to mobilize more than 1.4 billion euros in order to
increase container handling capacity at the Port and to remove the bottleneck due to the
insufficient depth and width of the Vridi channel. Also, once started, works have been so far
implemented according to the agreed time plan and the first phase of the project has been
successfully completed.
On the other side, some weaknesses can also be identified in this initiative. First of all, the overall
project will be completed only in 2021, that is 9 years after the launch of the tender in 2012. This
means that overall there is a delay of at least 3 years compared to the original time schedule
(opening was foreseen in 2018). The main reasons of this delay were the difficulties in the
financial arrangements for the infrastructure works under the responsibility of the Port
Authority, which were finalized in 2015. Transferring this risk to the private party might have
resulted in earlier completion of the project; however, the huge total investment was presumably
too large for the private market, hence the adopted solution had the merit to improve the viability
of the initiative.
At another level, a concern of this operation is that reinforced the almost total monopoly
position of Bolloré Transports & Logistics (BTL) in logistics in the port of Abidjan as well as in
its hinterland connections. In fact, BTL enjoys a dominant position not only at the port (BTL is in
charge of both concessions for the two container terminals in the Port of Abidjan) but also in
railway (Sitarail) and trucking or logistics service provider industry (World Bank, 2014).
Sources: Author’s interviews, Port Autonome d’Abidjan (2018), World Bank (2014).