Uganda and Tanzania push for integration of eco-transport system

Erick Hamissi, the managing director of TASHICO, cited Uganda’s poor state of the Port Bell and Jinja piers, which he said leads to prolonged delays while loading and offloading cargo for export and import by condemning their ships to longer docking periods.

He said the historic MV Umoja, which ferries both train and cargo between Mwanza and Ugandan ports, is affected by the poor state of the ports.

“Tanga and Dar-es-Salaam ports are getting a lot of cargo, but evacuating them to Uganda is our biggest challenge," said Hamissi.

"A ship becomes effective while sailing. If it docks longer, that is not efficient and this is among the challenges. They should come, offload, and go elsewhere without wasting time."

Daudi Migereko, the chairperson of the Uganda Railway Corporation (URC, admitted that Uganda is lagging in terms of rail and water infrastructure development.

During the closure of a two-day engagement that involved top officials from the URC, TRC and TASHICO at the Source of the Nile Hotel in Jinja on Wednesday, Migereko said they need to take advantage of Uganda and Tanzania's close relationship to utilise some of their infrastructure and expertise to foster movement.

Benon Kajuna, URC’s managing director, said Uganda has secured funds from the African Development Bank (ADB) for the rehabilitation and modernisation of the Port Bell and Jinja ports.

He said they are in the process of evaluating the bids to identify who would be tasked with their work.

Kajuna said Port Bell would mainly be for promoting tourism and local cargo while the ongoing construction of Bukasa Port would be for it to handle international cargo both from Mwanza and Kisumu (Kenya).

Ugandan officials and their Tanzanian counterparts from the railway and shipping sectors during a fact-finding mission to assess the state of Jinja Pier Port on Tuesday. (Photo by Jackie Nambogga)

Migereko said such infrastructure and engagements will enable Uganda to progress in revitalizing her railway and water transport.

During their meeting in Jinja, Hamissi said they had unveiled a new Mwanza ship capable of carrying 1,200 passengers and 400 tons of cargo.

“This ship is soon coming, but we wanted to see how this session will strategise and have it operational from Mwanza and Port Bell,” he said.

The Tanzanian officials were led on a fact-finding mission at the Jinja port.

Mohamed Saleh Faisal, an exporter of tiles to Tanzania as well as a logistician, said the visibly dilapidated Jinja port with broken wood had been abandoned until he began using in 1996.

Jinja Pier Port, whose rehabilitation is planned to improve cargo movement between Uganda and Tanzania. (Photo by Jackie Nambogga)

He urged URC to expedite its rehabilitation and expansion as well as the road infrastructure leading to the port.

“We have been crying over the poor state of our port. Exporters flock here but we can't load three vehicles at a go. The premises are small and need expansion because there is land,” said Faisal.

Erukana Musasizi, a truck driver with transportation and logistics firm C4Logistics, said they experience frequent vehicle breakdowns due to the poor state of the road to the Jinja port.

“I carry coal from Jinja Port to Tororo and Moroto, but my vehicle is again down. This is where we mint money, but the road is bad. Government should prioritise it," he said.

John Linnon Sengendo, URC’s communication officer, assured that the rehabilitation would involve upgrading the road install infrastructure like the immigration, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) offices to facilitate and ease exports and imports.