AD Ports Group expands its Angola operations with strategic agreements

AD Ports Group, a global enabler of integrated trade, transport, industry, and logistics solutions, has announced the signing of an agreement to develop a digital Single Logistics Trade Window solution for Angola’s trade regulator - Agência Reguladora de Certificação de Carga e Logística de Angola (ARCCLA), and the purchase of 30 new trucks and 45 new trailers with an approximate value of $ 6 million for its Angolan logistics business, Noatum Unicargas Logistics.

The Group has also signed five preliminary agreements with Angolan public- and private-sector partners to explore wider cooperation in maritime services, cabotage, training, logistics, airport cargo handling services, and healthcare.

The agreements were signed by Ricardo Viegas de Abreu, the Minister of Transport of the Republic of Angola, and Mohamed Eidha Al Menhali, Regional CEO - AD Ports Group.

The increase in the Group’s activities in Angola, where it has already committed to investing

$250 million through 2026 to redevelop and expand Noatum Ports Luanda Terminal, the multipurpose terminal facility at the country’s largest port, came six months after the Group commenced operations in Angola in January.

Ricardo Viegas de Abreu, the Minister of Transport of the Republic of Angola, said: “We welcome this opportunity to strengthen our productive relationship with AD Ports Group, a key investor in Angola and a strategic partner in our national transformation. By modernising and developing our maritime and commercial infrastructure, AD Ports Group and the Ministry of Transport are enhancing trade in the region and solidifying Angola’s position as a true driver of economic and social development.” Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, Managing Director and Group CEO of AD Ports Group, said: “The signings today underscore our commitment to developing Luanda and Angola into a main trade hub for West Africa. With the purchase of a new truck fleet for Noatum Unicargas Logistics, and our development of a Digital Single Logistics Trade Window for Angola, as well as these strategic MoUs today, we are pursuing transformational projects that will bring lasting economic growth and prosperity to the people of Angola, as our mutually beneficial partnership continues to develop under the wise guidance of our leadership in the UAE’’.

The Single Logistics Trade Window agreement and the truck fleet purchase deepen the Group’s presence in Angola - centred around the Port of Luanda, which handles approximately 76% of Angola’s container and general cargo volumes, as well as providing maritime access to landlocked neighbours Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia.

Noatum Ports Luanda Terminal at the Port of Luanda is a main staging point for Noatum Unicargas Logistics, the Group’s 90%-owned joint venture with local partner Unicargas, which is deploying one of Africa’s most modern overland transport fleets.

The addition of new trucks and trailers represents a near doubling of the Group’s Noatum Unicargas Logistics truck fleet, expanding the operation to 70 trucks and 95 trailers.

For the national trade regulator ARCCLA, AD Ports Group’s digital arm – Maqta Technologies - is developing a digital single logistics trade window solution called JUL, which will become the modern backbone of Angola’s digital trade ecosystem.

JUL will simplify trade and customs-related processes in Angola, an emerging central West Africa trade hub. In the first of three phases during the three-year agreement, JUL will streamline trade by sea, and enhance operational efficiency, and reduce carbon emissions, in Angola’s trade and logistics sector. By harmonising trade via sea, air, and land, JUL will integrate and simplify existing platforms such as the National Network of Logistic Platforms (RNPL), Single Port Window (JUP), Single Window for Foreign Trade (JUCE) with customs management system, as well as the digital systems of the logistics and trade ministries, other governmental entities, traders, forwarders, wholesalers and retailers, and the National Bank of Angola.

The development of JUL will draw on the Group’s in-house platform development expertise, which it bolstered through the purchases of TTEK, a developer of border control solutions and customs systems, and Dubai Technologies, a trade and transportation solutions developer.

The preliminary agreements signed with additional Angolan partners cover a range of areas.

A framework agreement with The Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Angola will explore potential cooperation in institutionalising the national maritime academy in Angola, ferry and cabotage services, operations of marine terminals, logistics platforms, as well as the Caio Deepwater Terminal in Cabinda, and the Dande Free Zone Multipurpose Terminal.