Lome
West Africa's smallest trade giant: 8 million people operating the region's only deepwater port at 16.6m depth, handling 30.6M tons annually under a 57-year family dynasty.
Togo is one of the smallest countries in West Africa — 57,000 square kilometres, 8 million people — yet its capital Lomé operates the region's busiest port and only deepwater terminal capable of handling third-generation container vessels. The port's 16.6-metre depth, the deepest on the West African coast, allows ships carrying 2,000-3,000 containers to dock where competitors require costly offshore transhipment.
Container traffic reached 30.6 million tons in 2024. This infrastructure advantage was not inherited; it was engineered against French opposition. When President Sylvanus Olympio sought to build West Africa's first deepwater port in the 1960s, France wanted a shared facility serving both Togo and neighbouring Dahomey (now Benin). Olympio refused, turned to Germany for financing, and the artificial harbour was inaugurated in 1968.
Container traffic reached 30.6 million tons in 2024.
The decision shaped everything that followed. Lomé handles over 80% of Togo's international trade and serves as the primary transit route for landlocked Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. When Benin closed its border with Niger following the 2023 coup, Lomé became the bypass route — capturing transit traffic through political flexibility rather than geographic advantage. This port-centred economy operates under the longest family dynasty in West Africa.
Gnassingbé Eyadéma seized power in 1967 and ruled until his death in 2005; his son Faure Gnassingbé took over immediately and remains president, having amended the constitution in 2024 to extend his rule further. The dynasty and the port are inseparable: Gnassingbé Eyadéma drove ECOWAS free trade zone creation, and the port now carries his name's airport alongside it. Phosphate mining provides a second revenue stream — Togo is among Africa's leading producers — though export proceeds declined between 2010 and 2020.
The biological parallel is the cleaner wrasse: a small organism that provides an indispensable service to much larger fish, creating a mutualistic relationship where the cleaner's station becomes a hub that structures movement patterns across the reef. Lomé's port is a cleaning station for West African trade — remove it, and cargo flows across the entire region restructure.