Gecotrans

Private sector-led investments in key infrastructure are one of the DRC’s development priorities. The logistics company Gecotrans is doing exactly that by opening a new dry port in Matadi, one of the country’s main access routes.

The port of Matadi, 150 km downstream the Congo River from Kinshasa is the maritime gateway of the DRC. Handling 90% of its imports and exports of containers and general cargo, many industries, and businesses in the Western part of the country rely heavily on the port. It faces, however, several limitations. 

Due to the Congo River’s lack of depth and width, larger vessels cannot easily enter the port. Feeder vessels arrive from the deep seaport of Pointe-Noir in the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) to offload their containers in Matadi, up to three hundred at a time. 

Not enough space to store and offload container
The port’s capacity to handle the containers is severely constrained. Matadi has limited flat space to build out capacity. The port does not have enough space to store  the containers, and offload and warehouse their contents, while clearing the goods through customs takes three to four weeks. This means that often goods remain in  
Pointe-Noir for several months waiting for free capacity at Matadi port. 

“This is why you regularly see empty shelves in the stores of Kinshasa,” says Dieudonné Kasembo, the founder and owner of Gecotrans. “Factories sometimes have to stop operations because the raw materials didn’t arrive.” The logistics 
company offers warehousing, transhipment from Pointe-Noir to Matadi, and customs brokerage: undertaking all the customs clearance formalities for customers.

Large port to let trade flow
To help solve the capacity constraints of Matadi port, Gecotrans developed a plan to gradually build a large dry port that could handle half of the port’s current capacity  
of 20,000 containers per year. “By moving the containers to a dry port just outside the port where customs can be handled, we would free up a lot of space at the port itself,” says Kasembo. 

The company also has big warehouses on site where the country’s big brewers and Maersk, the global shipping company, have their own space to store their imported goods. As the dry port is situated on the outskirts of Matadi, the trucks taking the goods to Kinshasa will not get stuck in the city’s congested roads. “Much to the 
relief of the people of Matadi who also suffer from the severe air pollution,” notes Kasembo.

“The dry port is very important for the country’s economic development, but It was difficult to finance,” says the entrepreneur, who initiated the project seven years ago. “We started small and then acquired more land. We financed most of it from our cash flow but then COVID came, and funding was more difficult. XSML pushed us to finish it.”

XSML provided a loan to Gecotrans in 2021.