There is limited available storage capacity in the country and the existing structures usually need rehabilitation and repairs. In Conakry city, it is difficult to find any suitable warehouses of big capacity and in good condition inside the city premises. Transporters and Freight Forwarding companies usually have some storage capacity. During the Ebola crisis, WFP deployed Mobile Storage Units in the country for the special operation of common services / Logistics Cluster by establishing three logistics bases with the main one in Conakry near the Gbessia International Airport, one in Nzérékoré and the third one in Kissidougou. These three logistics bases provided storage facilities to all humanitarian and governmental actors involved in the Ebola response. In some localities, there isn’t any structure that can be used as storage facility while in other places maybe an old cinema theatre could serve as temporary storage facility. 

For information on storage contacts, please see the following link: 4.6 Guinea Storage and Milling Company Contact List

Commercial Storage

Limited commercial storage exists in the country. It might be time consuming to find a suitable warehouse especially in the remote areas. 

Storage Used by Humanitarian Organizations

Humanitarian organizations use their own storage facility, either a warehouse or in the empty rooms in their offices. During the Ebola crisis, the humanitarian organizations opted to use the storage facilities provided by the WFP Special Operation of Common Services & Logistics Cluster. In order to provide suitable storage capacity for the Ebola Response, WFP Common Services/Logistics Cluster established three Logistics bases: Main Logistics Base (MLB) next to Conakry airport and two Forward Logistics Bases (FLB) in Kissidougou and N’Zérékoré. In addition to that, WFP Common Services/ Logistics Cluster provided Mobile Storage Units (MSU) to the humanitarian organizations including transport and erecting the MSU in different locations upon request. There are forwarding companies offering services in stock management but this option was not used by the humanitarian organizations as the main preferences is to run their own facilities. The major humanitarian organizations storing items in the country are the Pharmacy Central de Guinée (PCG), World Health Organization, UNICEF and WFP for both food and non-food items. Most of the items are Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), preventive materials against Ebola and food. The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) is currently supporting the Guinean Red Cross by financing the establishment of a new headquarters for the Guinean Red Cross that could serve as a main logistics base for their activities. During the Ebola response, WFP Common Services supported the Pharmacy Central de Guinea (PCG) with storage facilities and transport.

Public Sector Storage

There is some some public storage available to be used by  humanitarian organizations in different locations in Guinea if the request and the need are formulated to the local authorities. The best option is to directly contact the prefet/mayor of the locality who will help in identifying the available warehouses or locations. Most of these storage locations will need some rehabilitation and repairs. 

Cold Chain

There are not many cold chain facilities in the country. WFP Common Service/Logistics Cluster is deploying 6 Reefer containers at the Main Logistics Base in Conakry, 2 Reefer containers in Forward Logistics Base in N’zérékoré and 2 others in Kissidougou’s Forward Logistics. All the containers are 40’ containers. The Programme Elargie de Vaccination ‘PEV’ located in the PCG premises has cold chain facilities in Conakry and in the country as shown in the table here below. Their actual capacity satisfies their actual needs even though in some cases when there is a major vaccination campaign they find themselves relying on other structures to provide them with temporary storage. In 2015 – 2017 the PEV will be supported by DAVI and many of their installations will be renewed in 2016 which is the first phase of the project. In the second phase, the 4 PEV trucks will be replaced with new ones.