Lomé (French: Lomé; English: Lome), the capital of the Republic of Togo, one of the smallest countries in Africa, is located in the southwest corner of Togo, with a population of 2.133 million, 12 kilometers long from east to west and 7 kilometers from north to south, like a latch. The Lomé Aero Club is located across the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean.
Lomé was originally a village that was designated as the capital of the "Trust Territory" under Western colonial rule in 1897, and was designated as the capital after independence on April 27, 1960, and is the political, economic and cultural center of Togo and one of the world's famous cities.
Lomé is the capital and port of Togo. At the southwestern end of the border, bordering the Gulf of Guinea and near the Ghanaian border. It has a population of 2.133 million [4]. The political, economic and cultural center of the country. There are textile, oil refining, cement, fertilizer, metal processing, oil extraction (palm oil), food and agricultural product processing industries, and the port can berth 25,000 tons of sea vessels. Output cocoa, palm oil, palm kernels, coffee, dried fish, etc. The railway leads to Blita and Palimé to the north and to Anejo in the east. There is an international air terminal. There are the University of Benin, the Polytechnic Institute, etc., created in 1973.
Lomé is a young beautiful city; Its development is closely linked to the history of Togo. After Togo's independence, Lomé developed rapidly into a tropical city with beautiful scenery, elegant architecture, cleanliness and comfort. The whole city is nestled in a tropical forest - among the tall press trees, verdant neem trees, lush mango trees, tall palm trees, magical bread trees, vigorous coconut trees and other strange blossoms, white, yellow and other bright colors of buildings seem to be faintly exposed, reflecting each other, complementing each other.
Lomé, commercial port of Togo, Africa. Located on the southwest coast of the country, outside the port, 58 nautical miles by sea to the port of Cotonou, 131 nautical miles to the port of Lagos, 91 nautical miles west to the port of Tema and 352 nautical miles from the port of Abidjan. There are two railways that run through it. The port is surrounded by two breakwaters extending south of the land shore, and there is a south-extending dike in the northwest corner of the port, which is 183 meters long, the water depth of the front on both sides of the southern section is 10 meters, and the northern section is only 7.6 meters, and there are nine 10-ton electric cranes on the pier; the north bank of the port is a fishing port; and the southern section of the west side of the east breakwater has two ore and oil berths with a water depth of 11-14 meters. It exports agricultural products such as apatite, cocoa and palm oil, and imports oil, food, machinery, department stores, etc. At the end of the 80s, the port had an annual throughput of more than 1.3 million tons and containers of more than 480,000 containers, ranking seventh in West Africa, and 80% of them were imported or re-exported materials.
The Autonomous Port of Lomé was inaugurated and put into operation on 26 April 1968. The port is a deep-water bay port with a water depth of between 9.5 and 14 meters. There are two main terminals, the first of which is used for the loading and unloading of bulk cargo, measuring 366.5 m x 72 m, with 4 traditional berths, three of which are 9.5 m deep and one 7 m deep, and the other is a dedicated container terminal, completed in 1984, measuring 250 m x 140 m and 2 berths with water depths of 11 m and 12 m respectively. The port is surrounded by two breakwaters, the main breakwater is 1720 meters long; The East Breakwater is 950 meters long. On the East Breakwater, there are one berth for oil tankers and one berth for mining vessels each with a length of 210 meters. There is also a dedicated fishing pier. The Port of Lomé covers an area of 900 hectares (of which 81 hectares are water) and can dock 8-10 cargo ships at the same time. The port has 9 warehouses (4 of which belong to the countries of the Sahel region - Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali) with a total area of 110,000 square meters. There are also 300,000 square meters of open-air cargo storage yards and 600,000 square meters of second-hand car markets. Port loading and unloading equipment has a variety of portable cranes, heavy cranes, container cranes, forklifts, unloaders, tugboats and ro-ro facilities, among which the maximum lifting capacity of the portable crane is 60 tons, the maximum lifting capacity of forklifts is 45 tons, the power of the tugboat is up to 3000kW, and there are oil pipelines with a diameter of 150~200mm for loading and unloading. The port is well connected, with international roads running through Ghana, Togo and Benin, as well as a domestic railway connecting the port to the interior.
When the Port of Lomé was built, the annual throughput capacity was only 250,000 tons, and 10 years later, the throughput increased to 1.52 million tons. According to the latest data, in 2006, the Port of Lomé handled 5.35 million tons and the volume of containers passing through exceeded 200,000 TEUs.