Somalia will launch construction of a new international-standard port in Mogadishu next year, Minister of Ports and Maritime Transport Abdulkadir Muhammed Nur announced during the International Maritime Organization (IMO) 34th General Assembly in London.
Nur said the facility will be fully integrated into global transit networks and include both a regional transit hub and a free zone.
“It will be a very large port, designed to connect Somalia not only regionally but internationally,” Nur told Anadolu Agency.
The minister noted that Mogadishu’s existing port—currently the country’s largest—is primarily used for local logistics and remains limited in its links to global shipping routes.
First in East Africa
Despite this, Nur highlighted that Mogadishu Port recently ranked first in East Africa in an index evaluating 407 ports worldwide, an achievement he credited to government-backed modernisation and technical upgrades.
“From this perspective, we don’t really need competition — we are already number one,” Nur said.
The Mogadishu Port operates around the clock, a shift that has eased congestion and reduced ship waiting times dramatically, authorities said.
"In 2020, ships sometimes waited at the port for several days to unload containers. Now, we've reduced this to six hours. The businesspeople who use this port are very pleased. Because the port is in use day and night, traffic in Mogadishu has also decreased," the nation’s ports boss said.
He attributed this achievement to the government’s investments in equipment and technical systems at Mogadishu Port.
Daily container handling has already risen by 20 percent, with plans to increase that to 50 percent. The port—operated by Turkish firm Albayrak Group—has boosted its capacity from 150,000 TEU to 180,000 TEU this year, with a target of reaching 250,000 TEU.
Nur added that the improvements have been well received: “Our business community is very satisfied with these developments.”
Somalia says it intends to deepen cooperation with Türkiye in the maritime sector. According to Nur, “Turkey is very advanced in this field. Somalia is just beginning to join the global maritime system, and with Africa’s longest coastline, we hope to develop rapidly. We want to benefit from Türkiye’s experience.”
The 34th IMO General Assembly in London, which opened on 24 November, will conclude on 3 December.
