USAID Office of Food for Peace Burkina Faso Bellmon ... - CiteSeerX

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in Tema) encourage quick turnaround. Despite the improved infrastructure and services at the
Tema Port and its relative proximity to Burkina (550 miles from Ouagadougou ), some Burkina
freight forwarders and wholesalers indicate delays at the port requiring additional fees for
storage and double handling.
Inland Transportation
Like Lomé, Tema has access routes, which are reported to be less costly than operations
through Abidjan. In recent years, Ghana has been actively courting Burkina bound traffic on the
basis of lower port and inland transport costs. In an attempt to improve port services, and as
part of the World Bank’s Regional Project of Transport and Transit Facilitation in West Africa
[PRFTTAO], the computing systems of Ghana and Burkina Faso are to be interfaced. The
PRFTTAO program is implemented by ECOWAS and the Union Economique et Monétaire
Ouest Africaine (UEMOA). The PRFTTAO aims to improve Ghanaian port operations and to
facilitate the efficient movement of traffic along the Tema-Ouagadougou-Bamako (Mali)
transport corridor.
As mentioned in the Inland Transportation section, one recent change that may have a
significant impact on inland transportation costs took effect on June 1, 2009. This regulation
states that all axle loads must not exceed 11.5 MT per single axle and 4 meters in height above
the road surface. In the past, truckers would overload trucks with as much cargo and goods as
possible in order to transport more and yield greater per kilometer revenue. This dangerous
practice resulted in frequent break downs due to payload. This axle load regulation complies
with UEMOA Regulation 2005, which states that ECOWAS member states should adopt
common standards and procedures for control of the gauge, the weight, and the axle load of
every vehicle. This new regulation is expected to result in price hikes of nearly 100 percent for
goods transported from the Port of Tema to Burkina Faso. Although the current Title II DAP
Program did not yet have any direct billing experience under the new regulation, freight agents
report that it will make transport between Tema and Ouagadougou less attractive. Due to this
regulation as well as rising petroleum prices for trucked good, the security situation in Côte
d’Ivoire should be monitored closely to determine if Abidjan Port and rail connection to Burkina
Faso can be resumed in the future, thereby reducing inland transport costs for Title II food aid.
Storage Facilities, Specifications, Locations, Owners, and Capacity
Table 48: Warehouse Space for Food Aid
Client Total MT Available Total # of Warehouses Available
Title II Awardees 6,500 2
World Food Programme 15,000 14
Govt. of Burkina Faso 84,400 131
Total 105,900 147
Other findings related to distribution commodity storage and shelf-life based on an on-site visit
to the Title II food warehouse in Ouagadougou:
Dried products like cereal flour and blended food easily become damp when improperly
packaged under humid conditions, causing deterioration. To prevent this, they are packed in
BEST ANALYSIS – BURKINA FASO 83