Efforts to improve infrastructure for the central and southern transport corridors should go hand in hand with significant improvement of Dar es Salaam port.
What you need to know:
The chronic challenges at the biggest port in the country include low capacity for cargo clearance, exorbitant fees and weak cargo handling capacity
Tanzania’s shipping agents want an end to the chronic challenges that Dar es Salaam Port faces. Streamlining port services will boost revenue and economic growth, they argue—and rightly so.
The chronic challenges at the biggest port in the country include low capacity for cargo clearance, exorbitant fees and weak cargo handling capacity.
This is made worse by the narrow entrance channel and outdated cargo handling technology and clearance rather than greater use of Information Communication Technology. The current dwell time at the port is still more than seven days for domestic goods and 10 days for transit goods, which is contrary to international standards that stipulate less than seven days dwell time.
In terms of cargo handling capacity, the port dealt with14.6 million tonnes last year, including 621,000 containers for both transit and local consumption. Port stakeholders believe, though, that the capacity can rise 15 times should we come up with lasting solutions to the problem.
It is also important to note that Dar es Salaam Port faces a huge demand for cargo handling from seven landlocked countries—Malawi, Zambia, Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Raising port efficiency when it comes to cargo clearance and handling is essential to tapping this huge demand—which is an opportunity to generate more revenue to beef up the government’s chronically depleted government coffers.
The tendency to raise taxes imposed on people who are already overtaxed, ostensibly to boost revenue generation, can be offset by enhanced port revenue generation on an annual basis.
Efforts to improve infrastructure for the central and southern transport corridors should go hand in hand with significant improvement of Dar es Salaam port.
