The Impact of Maritime Connectivity on African Container Ports Efficiency: A Continental and Regional Perspective

Purpose: This study evaluates the efficiency of African container ports and examines the extent to which external maritime connectivity, measured by the Port Liner Shipping connectivity index, influences Port efficiency across different African regions.It addresses a critical gap in empirical research by applying a regionally differentiated and data-driven approach tailored to the African port landscape.Methods: A two-phase analytical approach is adopted.First, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) assessed port efficiency in overall and regional areas using berth length, water depth, and terminal area as inputs and TEU throughput as the output.Second, regression analysis conducted using Microsoft Excel examined the impact of PLSCI on DEA-derived efficiency scores across the continent and regions.Results: An efficiency analysis of 23 African container ports revealed significant regional disparities, largely influenced by policy frameworks, investment levels, and trade integration.In the overall port efficiency assessment, Tanger Med, Durban, and Tema emerged as the most efficient ports.In contrast, ports like Nouakchott and Port Louis remained inefficient due to persistent infrastructural and institutional constraints.The evaluation revealed substantial regional differences in port efficiency.Central-West Africa recorded the highest average technical efficiency (VRS = 0.8921), followed by North Africa (VRS = 0.8525) and South-East Africa (VRS = 0.8012).Most ports showed higher VRS than CRS scores, highlighting scale inefficiencies as the main performance barrier.Regression analysis showed PLSCI is not a significant predictor of port efficiency continent-wide (R = 0.0173, p = 0.5497), it is significantly associated with efficiency in West-Central Africa (R = 0.4642, p = 0.0433) and North Africa (R = 0.692, p = 0.040).No significant relationship is found in South-East Africa (R = 0.0419, p = 0.627), suggesting other internal or institutional factors are at play.Implications and Recommendations: This study advances port efficiency research by applying a regionally nuanced, two-stage DEA-regression model suited to data-limited African contexts.It reveals that maritime connectivity alone is insufficient to improve efficiency where internal and scale inefficiencies persist.These findings underscore the need for tailored policies that combine connectivity improvements with investments in infrastructure, governance, and technology, while prioritizing enhanced liner service frequency, regional logistics integration, and investment attraction through public-private partnerships for inefficient ports.Improving port efficiency requires tailored strategies based on port size and function, implying targeted infrastructure upgrades, operational improvements, and adoption of digital tools such as Port Community Systems (PCS), Terminal Operating Systems (TOS), and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).Future research should examine how these technologies impact connectivity and port performance using panel data to inform sustainable growth policies across all port sizes.They can