Why Africa Is Losing Billions Through Its Own Ports

In this compelling SAT Interviews exclusive, Darwin Telemaque, CEO of the Antigua and Barbuda Port Authority, delivers a hard-hitting analysis of Africa’s structural economic challenge: ownership of ports, shipping lines, and trade infrastructure. Speaking with Farai Ian Muvuti for The Southern African Times, Telemaque argues that ports and shipping are the most powerful levers of economic sovereignty, yet remain largely outside African control. As a result, profits, governance, and decision-making continue to flow offshore, reinforcing dependency rather than development. The conversation explores how diaspora networks can be mobilised beyond talent and culture to include logistics, trade financing, infrastructure ownership, and enterprise scaling, particularly for Africa’s creative and cultural industries. Telemaque challenges policymakers, investors, and the diaspora to rethink land ownership, terminal control, and governance frameworks as prerequisites for genuine economic transformation.