Mojo Inland Port Adds 1 Million-Container Capacity to Anchor the DESSU Trade Corridor

One million twenty-foot shipping containers placed end-to-end stretch roughly 6,000 kilometers—the distance from Addis Ababa to Rome. That represents the annual processing capacity of the newly inaugurated phase of the Mojo Logistics Center. Covering 60 hectares, the physical footprint is larger than the entire passenger terminal complex at Bole International Airport. Backed by a $150 million investment from the World Bank, the modernized dry port introduces Ethiopia's first rail-mounted gantry cranes. It moves beyond basic container storage by integrating six new refrigerated warehouses, upgraded heavy machinery, and comprehensive water and fire protection networks designed to operate fully on renewable energy. Switching from diesel-powered reach stackers to grid-connected overhead lifting strips thousands of liters of imported fuel consumption out of the daily logistics cycle.

The financial mechanics of the hub center on domesticating transit services. Historically, state enterprises and private importers paid stevedoring firms in US dollars to package dry bulk cargo, such as fertilizer and wheat, into 50-kilogram sacks before road transport. The Mojo expansion pulls that bagging process across the border. By completing the packaging domestically, operators retain those foreign exchange fees. With the official exchange rate sitting at 157 Birr to the dollar, cutting hard currency payments to coastal transit providers acts as a direct buffer against domestic inflation. The Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics enterprise captures the terminal handling revenues in local currency, while port clearing agents in Djibouti lose a major structural revenue stream.

This infrastructure physically anchors the DESSU Corridor, a multilateral trade route linking Djibouti, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Uganda. Formalized to provide landlocked states with streamlined access to the Port of Djibouti, the corridor authority implements a synchronized digital customs territory aimed at reducing regional logistics costs. Moving goods across these borders under the African Continental Free Trade Area framework requires standardized ledgers to prevent multi-day border delays. The Mojo facility operates as the primary digital choke point, matching the clearing speeds of automated inland ports like Kenya's Naivasha terminal. Upgrading this capacity positions Ethiopian freight forwarders to compete for South Sudanese import volumes that currently rely on the Mombasa-Kampala transit pipeline.