Kenyan company to develop port at Anjouan island

The island of Anjouan, in the Mozambique Channel, is benefiting from huge investment made by a Kenyan company. The shipping company, Spanfreight Group, has taken over the management of the port of Mutsamudu in Anjouan. The Kenyan company will have a 10-year concession on port handling, transhipment and storage, after it struck a deal with authorities on the island in the Mozambique channel.

Spanfreight has already installed equipment worth $500,000, which includes a 45t loader capable of handling containers. The company has already hired enough stevedores to become the chief private employer in Anjouan.

It hopes to transform Mutsamudu into a transhipment port thanks to its strategic position in the middle of the Mozambique channel. However, for this ambition to be realised, they will need to attract traffic that currently runs to the Longoni port in Mayotte. Yet, since fees there are higher and unloading delays are frustrating shippers, Mutsamudu should prove an attractive alternative. Spanfreight has plans to dredge and deepen the port so that it can receive bigger ships in the future.

Copyright International Communications Apr 2003
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