The Praia-Dakar Shipping and Maritime Services Project will establish a regular maritime service between Cabo Verde and Senegal and connect Cabo Verde more effectively to mainland ECOWAS markets. It is a component of the wider Praia-Dakar-Abidjan multimodal corridor and covers the vessel, port-interface, commercial, financial, governance and operating arrangements required for a sustainable service.
ECOWAS completed the preliminary technical and financial work and, in July 2025, validated the Phase 3 financial and implementation strategy. The recommendations still required operational, infrastructure, procurement, governance and technical preconditions before launch. ECOWAS continued specialist recruitment for the project in 2026.
The project is intended to establish a reliable maritime connection of more than 660 km between Praia and Dakar, with potential interfaces to other West African ports through the Praia-Dakar-Abidjan corridor. The service is intended to carry passengers and cargo and may use a combined container and RoPax operating model.
The project includes market and traffic analysis, vessel and port-infrastructure requirements, environmental and social analysis, financial modelling, management and governance arrangements, procurement design and a sustainable operating model. The April 2015 Cabo Verde-Senegal memorandum and the later ECOWAS corridor framework provide the institutional basis.
ECOWAS reported progress in completing financial and technical studies in 2024. In July 2025, stakeholders validated the financial and implementation strategy but also required ECOWAS to establish operational, infrastructure and technical preconditions, define management procedures, optimise cost estimates and prepare an appropriate procurement mechanism. A 2026 finance-specialist recruitment further confirms continuing structuring work. Announced expectations for operation by the end of 2026 are targets.
Establish a viable and reliable maritime service between Praia and Dakar; strengthen Cabo Verde's physical integration with ECOWAS markets; improve passenger and cargo mobility; reduce maritime-connectivity constraints; and establish an appropriate governance, financing, procurement and operating model.