The National Port Authority (NPA) of Liberia is in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, this week, joining port authorities and maritime stakeholders from across the continent for the Data Validation Workshop of the African Ports Connectivity Portal Project (APC-PP). Running from March 23 to 27, 2026, the workshop is more than a technical exercise. It is a defining moment in Africa’s long-overdue effort to build the data infrastructure that competitive, investable ports require.
Leading the NPA’s delegation is Amb. R. Van Ross, Executive Director for Planning, Research, and Economic Affairs, joined by Ms. Esther K. Nmah, Executive Director for Port States Coordination; Mr. Chris K. Larmin, Research Manager, Department of Planning, Research and Economic Affairs; and Mr. Alfred T. Kamara, Planning Manager, representing APM Terminals Liberia. Their combined expertise in policy, research, and port operations reflects the NPA’s deliberate approach: bringing the right people to the right table.
Launched by the African Development Bank in September 2025, the APC-PP was born from a simple but consequential reality: Africa’s ports have long been underserved by reliable, comparable data. Without it, strategic planning is based on guesswork, investment cases are weakened, and the continent’s ports struggle to benchmark themselves against their global peers. This work transitions moves the project from data collection and intruder, challenging and more consequential work of validating and scrutinising submitted datasets, reconciling inconsistencies, laying the foundation of trust that sound requires.
Delegates are working through the substance that will define the portal’s long-term value: aligning survey instruments with the project’s Connectivity Index; agreeing on Key Performance Indicators and standardised definitions that make cross-border benchmarking meaningful; and establishing governance frameworks that determine how port data is collected, shared, and protected. Particular attention is being paid to the persistent problem of data “missingness,” referring to gaps in port records that, left unaddressed, undermine the credibility of any continental data system.
Lending depth to these discussions are contributions from UNCTAD, the World Bank, UN Comtrade, and leading private data providers, whose involvement ensures the APC-PP platform will be rigorous enough to inform the billion-dollar infrastructure decisions that Africa’s ports urgently need.
Liberia’s stake in this process is clear. As home to one of the world’s largest ship registries and a strategically situated gateway along the West African coastline, Liberia has every reason to care about how African port performance is measured, reported, and perceived. The NPA’s active engagement in shaping the APC-PP’s standards is, at its core, an investment in Liberia’s competitive future, in the bankability of its port infrastructure and the credibility of its maritime sector on the world stage.
The NPA leaves Abidjan not just as a participant, but as a stakeholder in a shared continental project. Africa’s ports will only be as strong as the data that describes them. That is the work being done this week, and the NPA is proud to be part of it.
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