Guinea-bissau Transportation Profile 2012

The Port of Bissau, the country’s only international port, is responsible for 85% of exports and more than 90% of imports. The port is handling four times its capacity of containers. It is poorly managed and has an estimated twice the number of workers required, nearly all poorly trained, while the port is in a general state of decay. The new director general of transport is starting training programmes and reducing personnel. More promising, however, Bauxite Angola signed an agreement with the government in May 2009 to build and manage a second deep-water port at Buba. When completed in 2011, Buba will become an important trade hub for Senegal, Mali and Guinea-Conakry. Bauxite Angola is also financing 110 kilometres (km) of railway from the mines to Buba port. A fishing port is planned to open in Bandim in 2011 that will help to diversify rural revenues away from an overdependence on cashew.

There are 4 380 km of roads in Guinea-Bissau of which only 10% are paved. The rest become unusable during the rainy season, isolating parts of the country for several months and making cashew transport difficult. Thanks to an EU-funded rehabilitation project in 2006-09 all primary roads are in good condition. However, long-term maintenance and repair remain a challenge because ofa lack of funds. In 2010, the EU and the West African Development Bank will finance a 15-month rehabilitation of major roads in the capital, while the AfDB will add 200 km more of paved road by 2011. There are currently no roads connecting the south of the country to Bissau.
The EU has invested 31 million euros (EUR) to build two bridges on the main road between Bissau and Ziguinchor (Senegal) and Banjul (The Gambia). The first was completed in 2008 and the second opened in June 2009. They have greatly facilitated the movement of people and exports and are especially important for trade given the problems and high costs of the Port of Bissau.