Abidjan port launches scheme to cut fraud, delays

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's main port of Abidjan has launched a system to allow customers to track their goods' passage to and from the port, increasing operational transparency and efficiency, the managing director said.

The world's top cocoa supplier is battling to regain the confidence of investors and land-locked neighbours that rely on its ports, after a 2002-2003 war split the nation in half. Polls aimed at ending the subsequent political crisis have been delayed.

The conflict forced Burkina Faso and Mali to divert goods through rival ports while harassments at roadblocks that remain in place has increased the cost of business, undermining the top cocoa grower's reputation as the region's most stable economy.

"This is a revolutionary project that will cut back on fraud on the roads and reduce delays for economic operators inland," Marcel Gossio, managing director of the port, told journalists after launching the scheme on Thursday.

Using the new system, customs authorities and companies shipping goods will be able to track, in real time, goods as they move to, through and out of the port.

"This project will not only ensure the security and flow of goods, which should be able to get to Burkina Faso and Mali (from Abidjan) within 48 hours, but it will also ensure they are traceable and help the fight against fraud," Gossio added.

Over the last three years, Ivory Coast has been lobbying for companies and its neighbours, many of whom have turned to Benin, Togo and Ghana's ports during the crisis, to revert to using Abidjan as their gateway to West Africa. But analysts say the roadblocks and corruption continues to hurt Ivorian business.

A World Bank report last year found that businesses and passengers were paying up to 150 billion CFA francs per year in illegal taxes at roadblocks and checkpoints, sharply increasing the cost of business.