Innovation Testbeds: A Pathway to a Green Shipping Corridor in West Africa

Green shipping corridors are strategic to the pathways to decarbonization. This is a route in the maritime sector that connects ports where only ships operating with zero or near-zero emissions are permitted. Despite the promising nature of this plan, many of the nations are fraught with challenges that have impeded their progress. This reality poses a challenge to the vision of the Green Shipping Corridor for major shipping ports on the West African coastline. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the pathways to green shipping corridors in the West African Region. This study adopts an exploratory approach through secondary sources. The study finds that West Africa may not be ready to launch into a full green corridor immediately, as many corridor initiatives stall because the leap from initiation to realization is too large without a costbridging mechanism. Therefore, an innovation testbed approach is considered a profitable pathway to the Green Shipping corridor in West Africa.