From humble beginnings a half-century ago as the local operator of the two-crane operation at Port Rashid, Dubai Ports World has matured into a global logistics powerhouse.

It’s also a key tool of the United Arab Emirates’ growing geopolitical ambitions. Increasingly, those dual commercial and strategic goals align on the same target: Africa.

Today the company employs more than 20,000 people across the continent. It operates ports and logistics centres in nine African countries – Algeria, Angola, Djibouti, Egypt, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa – as well as the self-declared state of Somaliland.

“Africa stands at a crucial moment,” Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the group’s Chairman and CEO, wrote in a January blog post. “Youth, rich in resources and burgeoning markets. Yet, unlocking this potential requires us all to embrace trade as a transformative force, a catalyst for shared prosperity.

“DP World, a long-time friend and partner to Africa, recognises this power.”

UAE soft power

DP’s PR department is keen to depict the company’s foray into Africa as a natural progression of centuries of close geographic and cultural ties.

“Trading corridors between the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa, in particular, are not new,” says Daniel Van Otterdijk, DP’s chief communications officer.  “We can’t claim to have developed any of that.”

Rather, he says, the company simply developed them over time “into more modern trade lanes with more modern facilities, with more modern ships and port infrastructure.”

DP, he insists, is not an arm of the Emirati government. “We’re an independent private company,” Van Otterdijk says. “We have British investors, we have Australian investors, and we have UAE investors. We don’t have anybody from the UAE government on our board.”

Yet the company is ultimately owned by Dubai’s ruling family via its corporate parent, Dubai World. That investment company plays a key role in setting the direction of Dubai’s economy and is chaired by the emirate’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Its fellow Emirati ports operator, AD Ports Group, is even more closely tied to the government via its ownership by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund. Already present in Egypt, AD Ports is now expanding to the Republic of Congo and Tanzania.

Kenneth Katzman, a retired long-time senior Middle East expert at the Congressional Research Service in Washington, likens DP to Russia’s Gazprom – minus the rampant corruption and inefficiency.

“It’s a corporation, but it’s got political overtones to it in terms of signalling [government] intentions and strategy, in terms of where it gets involved, and what kinds of deals it strikes,” says Katzman, now a senior fellow at the Soufan Centre, a foreign policy think tank in New York.

“It’s not necessarily a government agency, per se, but it’s a sentinel: It tells you what the government is thinking, what they’re intending, who they’re dealing with, how they’re dealing with things, where they’re interested in playing.”

Growing pains

Because of those connections, DP’s worldwide expansion hasn’t always been painless. The company first came to global public attention in 2006 when its bid to run six major US seaports triggered national security concerns – tinged with outright Islamophobia – following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.

Despite principled support from President George W. Bush, the clamour from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress led DP to abandon the deal and transfer operations to American International Group.

Africa comes with its own set of headaches. Two years ago, DP World became a political punching bag during Kenya’s presidential campaign after its March 2022 bid to run the ports of Mombasa, Lamu and Kisumu became public. The Kenya Kwanza coalition headed by William Ruto – now the country’s president – accused then-leader Uhuru Kenyatta of selling off national assets in secret and the deal fell apart.

Last year, it was Tanzania’s turn to be rocked with protests and legal action against the proposal by President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government to have DP World manage ocean and inland harbours.

“The agreement was shocking as it entailed clauses that were blatantly one-sided in favour of the Dubai government and its state-owned enterprise Dubai Port World,” activist Maria Tsehai told The Africa Report last year.

Nowhere has the business feud been as bitter as in Djibouti. In 2006, the Emirati company secured a 30-year contract with the tiny coastal nation and proceeded to build the Doraleh container terminal on the Gulf of Tadjoura. Six years later, Djibouti accused DP of bribing the head of the port authority and proceeded to nationalise Doraleh and hand it over to a Chinese rival.

Since then, DP has racked up court victories in London, Hong Kong and Washington, DC.

“I think it’s well documented now, the corruption of the Djiboutian government and the illegality of taking away our concession,” Van Otterdijk says. “The International Court of Arbitration in London has now adjudicated five times in our favour, demanding that the Djiboutian authorities reinstate DP World.”

For Katzman, DP’s fortunes are intrinsically linked to Emirati geopolitics. In the case of Doraleh, for example, the crisis escalated to the breaking point after the UAE deepened security ties with Somaliland in 2016 while DP World signed a deal to upgrade the breakaway region’s port of Berbera, energising an up-and-coming rival on Djibouti’s doorstep.

“It’s viewed as an instrument of the UAE leadership thinking,” he says.

“There’s no way a leader in Africa is going to separate UAE from DP World, in terms of breaking ties with UAE but keeping DP World involved. That doesn’t add up.”

Ethiopian prize

By all accounts, the UAE leadership – and DP – are playing a long game in East Africa.

In the short term, the Berbera investment has thrust the port operator into the middle of a geopolitical maelstrom. After Ethiopia and Somalia signed a Memorandum of Understanding earlier this year that would reportedly grant Addis Ababa access to a 12-mile strip of coastline for 50 years in exchange for recognising Somaliland’s independence, Somalia denounced an act of “aggression” and lined up support for its territorial integrity from everyone from Egypt and the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to the US, the European Union and the G7.

Yet the potential payoff is clear. Central to the UAE’s calculations in the region is containing its arch-rival Iran. This can be seen in everything from Emirati support for Sudanese warlord Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – better known as Hemeti – to its military presence in Berbera to fight the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen.

“What they’re trying to do is deny any competitor or adversary control over the Red Sea,” says Katzman. “Ethiopia is definitely a prize.”

Already Africa’s second most populous country with 115 million people, Ethiopia is projected to have almost 300 million inhabitants by the end of the century. Landlocked ever since Eritrea seceded in 1993, its access to the sea has been described as an existential issue by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

“Everything can’t go through Djibouti, it’s not possible. So it’s going to have to go through Berbera,” says Peter Pham, a former US diplomat with plentiful connections across both Africa and the Middle East.

“If you’ve got the luxury of investing for the long term, it’s a no-brainer. It’s going to pay geopolitical dividends over time, and it’s also going to pay off economically from Day One.”

The future is African

Van Otterdijk is well aware of the political risk for any foreign company doing business in Africa. When describing DP’s investments, he draws a distinction with foreign competitors – namely the Chinese – to affirm that the Dubai-based company is dedicated to the continent, from its practice of hiring almost all local staff to the millions of dollars invested in dozens of social investments across the continent.

In Senegal, where DP is making its largest investment in Africa with the just launched $1.1bn construction of the deepwater port of Ndayane 50 miles south of Dakar, these include a partnership with the non-governmental organisation Barefoot College International to train rural women to be solar engineers. The goal is to bring electricity and economic development to the area.

“It’s one thing building a port,” Van Otterdijk says. “But if you don’t have the employees living in the vicinity that can come and operate the port, then you’ve got a massive uphill battle.”

DP is replicating that investment in people and skills across the continent, laying the logistics groundwork to take full advantage of a pan-African market that its spokesman calls “the last great bastion of wonderful opportunity”.

“That’s the key to all of this, building infrastructure: Roads, railways, airports, ports. That’s how you unlock that prosperity,” Van Otterdijk says. “We think that in the next three decades, Africa could become one of the economic powerhouses of the world.”