EU approves funds for strategic modernization of Cape Verde ports

The European Union (EU) will finance the modernization of Cape Verde’s ports in order to diversify the economy and use its strategic position in the Atlantic to provide services in the maritime sector, Ambassador to the archipelago Carla Grijo told Luce.

“Cape Verde is in a strategic position that it can take advantage of, but to do so it needs to improve its infrastructure and the services that its ports can provide. It is in this context that the government has presented us with a list of infrastructure that it intends to modernize,” he explained.

Carla Grijo gave an interview to Luce a few days after the European Investment Bank (EIB) approved €114 million in funding to finance the restoration and expansion of the ports (which include the islands of Santo Antão, São Vicente and Sal), as well as the country’s main naval shipyard, Cabnave, located in São Vicente.

The support comes in response to the EU’s Global Gateway initiative, which also received a non-repayable grant of €25 million from the EU budget – part of which allows the EIB loan, approved at the end of June, “to be more concessional”.

The Global Gateway formula “allows the use of public resources from the EU budget to mobilise investments from other financiers – in this case from the EIB, but the search for other financial partners is ongoing,” said Carla Gricho, “because the approximately 100 million euros that we have already received will not be enough to finance the modernisation of all the infrastructure that is on the list of the Cape Verdean government.”

“This is already a good start – the opportunity to start funding some of the most important infrastructure,” he said.

All investments are interconnected, he noted, citing as an example the importance of investments in the port of Palmeira for Cape Verde’s fishing fleet.

After the upgrade, the port will be able to provide access to the “bank [de pesca] near the island of Sal, on the coast of New Holland, so that the national fleet could supply the fish processing plants located in San Vicente.”

“Ultimately, all of this is connected to one main goal – to improve communications between the islands, as well as connections with the African continent,” he stressed.

The investment, which has now received the green light from the EIB, is part of the strategy for the development of the Praia-Dakar-Abidjan multimodal transport corridor, defined by the EU as a “strategic regional corridor”, as the financial institution itself explained when approving the fund.

It will still take time from approval of financial support to work on the ground, and Carla Griho does not agree on timelines.

“It’s true that it took us time, it took us a lot of research,” but the ambassador justified it by “high standards in the areas of the environment, labor and human rights.”

“For a partner like Cape Verde, this is also an advantage, as the country is striving to reach this level of international standards. Working with the EU, the EIB and other like-minded partners, we are also contributing to raising these standards,” he stressed.

The port financing approved by the EIB is part of a wider package announced by Brussels in October 2023 worth €246 million for Cape Verde.

This global range aims to encourage green energy production, sustainable transport and the digital transformation of the archipelago.

At the time, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the Global Gateway strategy as “a way to create a better future for the EU’s partner countries,” and Cape Verde shared the European vision of “a greener, more connected and economically stronger country.”