Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much British International Investment paid DP World between (a) October 2021 and March 2022 and (b) March 2022 and July 2023.

Ports are vital to the long-term prosperity of the African continent, yet Africa accounts for just 4 per cent of global containerised shipping volumes. British International Investment's (BII) partnership is supporting the modernising and expansion of three ports in Dakar, Sokhna and Berbera, helping to improve access to vital goods for 35 million people. By 2035, an estimated $51 billion in additional trade is forecast to pass through the ports, equivalent to 3 per cent of Senegal's and Egypt's GDP and 6 per cent of Somaliland's GDP.

In 2021, BII committed approximately $320 million to the joint venture. BII has so far disbursed $290 million, all of which has been disbursed between March 2022 to end of June 2023.