AFRICAN-CARIBBEAN TRADE CORRIDOR TAKES SHAPE WITH $40M ST KITTS DEEP-WATER PORT PROJECT

Aisha Maina seals $40m St Kitts port deal to paving the way for a direct Africa–Caribbean trade route and faster market access for African goods.

African Deep-water port Caribbean Finance deal Investment Atlantic Business.

Mrs Aisha Maina, signing the $40 million deal to construct a deep-water port

In a landmark step toward rekindling centuries-old trade ties across the Atlantic, Nigerian entrepreneur Mrs Aisha Maina has sealed a $40 million deal to construct a deep-water port in St Kitts, creating a direct maritime link between Africa and the Caribbean for the first time in modern history.

Maina, Managing Director of Aquarian Consult and founder of Gemini Integrated Commodities, signed the agreement on July 28 in Grenada during the Afreximbank Afri-Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum. The deal, backed by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the Government of St Kitts & Nevis, will establish a Panamax berth port in Basseterre as the anchor of a 10-square-kilometre special economic zone.

“This port moves us from promise to throughput, from talk to tonnage. It is the physical backbone of a trade bridge that has been too long in the making,” Maina declared at the signing ceremony, attended by Prime Minister Dr Terrance Drew and Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources, Samal Duggins.

When complete, the facility will reduce Lagos-to-Basseterre shipping times to just seven days, bypassing costly European detours and enabling African producers to access Caribbean and North American markets faster and more cost-effectively. The special economic zone will focus on agro-processing, light manufacturing, and bonded warehousing, providing a platform for adding value to African raw materials.

Feasibility and environmental studies are to begin this August, with financial close targeted for Q1 2026 and the first container expected by Q4 2028. The project is expected to create 600 direct construction jobs and draw an estimated $300 million in additional private investment.

The initiative is part of a broader push to forge strategic economic links between 19 African and 12 Caribbean Commonwealth nations, building on recent high-level trade missions, including a historic Air Peace flight ferrying over 120 Nigerian entrepreneurs and policymakers to Basseterre in June.

Maina, who also delivered keynote speeches at the Caribbean Investment Forum in Jamaica and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Symposium in Trinidad, framed the project as a private-sector-led response to structural trade barriers. “If the private sector does not take charge of the process, we will remain where we have been. Retreat or defeat are not options,” she told delegates.

For St Kitts & Nevis, with fewer than 60,000 residents, the port could transform the federation into a pivotal logistics hub linking Africa, the Caribbean, and beyond, marking a bold new chapter in transatlantic commerce.

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AFRICAN-CARIBBEAN TRADE CORRIDOR TAKES SHAPE WITH $40M ST KITTS DEEP-WATER PORT PROJECT

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