Tanzania ports move to impress Ugandan businessmen

Last year, Tanzania kicked off a $593m upgrade of Dar es Salaam port to match the efficiency of Kenya’s Mombasa port, the region’s biggest port.

The expansion of Dar es Salaam port is expected to provide renewed competition to the dominant Mombasa port that sometimes faces security and turnaround challenges because of the massive volumes. It is also expected to increase its capacity to 28 million tonnes by 2020 and more than triple it to 34 million tonnes by 2025.

“We have made improvements in our human resource capital, technology, facilities both in systems infrastructure and machinery, electronic cargo management systems, improved security to the highest level by installing a state-of-the-art integrated security system (ISS) which includes fixing CCTV cameras at various points around the port,” Eng. Deusdedit Kakoko, TPA’s director general told a press briefing at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala last week.

Dar es Salaam is Tanzania’s principal port that handles about 95% of Tanzania’s international trade. The port serves the landlocked countries of Malawi, Zambia, DR Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.

According to World Bank analysis, if Dar es Salaam port reached the same level of efficiency as Mombasa, the Tanzanian economy and the East African region would gain almost $1.8b and $800m annually.

Currently, Tanzania ports have the capacity of handling 20 million tonnes of cargo per annum. They are also able to handle containers that are twice as big as the current capacity we are handling.

He explained that they are currently handling about 400,000 containers but have the capacity to handle as much as a million 20 tonne containers.

The port is strategically placed to serve as a convenient freight linkage not only to and from East and Central Africa countries, but also to the Middle East and Far East, Europe, Australia and America.