The port's location at the extreme western point of Africa, at the crossroad of the major sea-lanes linking Europe to South America, makes it a natural port of call for shipping companies.

Led by Captain Protet, French troops took possession of the Senegalese coast in 1857.

While the Bolloré Group was in Senegal for more than 80 years, Dubai Ports World (DP World), who on October 8, 2007 signed an agreement with Senegalese Prime Minister Cheikh Hadjibou Soumaré for a 25-year concession on the container terminal of the port, marking a new breakthrough business in the Gulf States in Francophone Africa, ahead of the 11th summit of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation in Dakar in March 2008.

Plans for new infrastructure - modernization of the site and the "future of the port", as stated by President Abdoulaye Wade - are scheduled for delivery by 2012.

The port features prominently in Senegalese cult-classic film Touki Bouki.