Travel Guide Port-Harcourt

Capital of Rivers State and emblem of the black gold economy, Port Harcourt has little interest for tourists and instead presents the aspects of a garrison town. The town was initially established as a coal port, carrying ore extracted in the Enugu region and named in 1913 in honour of the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lewis Vernon Harcourt. The discovery of oil off the coast of Nigeria in 1956 transformed the history of the city, which was one of the theatres of the Biafra War ten years later. Today, most of the expatriates living there work for Oil & Gas companies (Shell, Total, Ponticelli...) which park them in very secure compounds and impose a curfew on them. Without being particularly alarmist, security in Port Harcourt is indeed a problem, and every trip must be thought out and calibrated. The city, sometimes referred to as a garden city, is home to a French school, managed and hosted by Total, while its airport was still organizing its arrivals in tents until 2018.