Kenya to use Kigali office as launch pad into Congo

 

Trucks at the Rwanda-DR Congo border in Rubavu. Traders in Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern DRC will now pay and clear their cargo in Rwanda, saving them time spent in Mombasa after Kenya Ports Authority opened a liaison office in Kigali. Photo/FILE  Nation Media Group

By ALEX NGARAMBE Rwanda Today

In Summary

• The move comes as Kenya's Mombasa port seeks to defend its position as the region’s favourite shipment centre after reforms at the Dar es Salaam port threatened to tilt traders’ preferences in favour of the latter.
• Despite political unrest in the mineral rich eastern DRC, cargo at the Mombasa port bound to the central African nation has increased significantly, surpassing what goes to Burundi and Rwanda.
• Now the port looks set to cash in on this growth with KPA opening a representative office in Kigali to bring services closer to traders from landlocked countries.

The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) will use its newly launched Representative Office in Kigali as a launch-pad into Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The move comes as the Mombasa port seeks to defend its position as the region’s favourite shipment centre after reforms at the Dar es Salaam port threatened to tilt traders’ preferences in favour of the latter.

Despite political unrest in the mineral rich eastern DRC, cargo at the Mombasa port bound to the central African nation has increased significantly, surpassing what goes to Burundi and Rwanda.

Now the port looks set to cash in on this growth with KPA opening a representative office in Kigali to bring services closer to traders from landlocked countries.

With an office in Kigali, traders in Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern DRC will now pay and clear their cargo in Rwanda, saving them time spent in Mombasa.

Last year, the Mombasa port handled cargo worth over 400,000 tonnes destined for the DRC, up from 350,000 tonnes the previous year.

The cargo is almost double that destined for Rwanda, which stood at slightly over 250,000 tonnes last year.

READ: Expansion of ports will drive cargo business

Biggest export market

“There is no reason we should not target DRC, as it has more business than any other country whose cargo we handle,” said Mr Michael Kamau, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Transport and Infrastructure.

He said the Kigali office will handle all transactions as soon as all traders’ bank accounts are operationalised.

The need to expand the DRC market comes at a time when the politically troubled country is Rwanda’s biggest export market and informal cross-border trading partner.

The new Kigali office is good news for landlocked countries in the East African region that have been losing goods as a result of bureaucratic and complex clearance procedures.

The KPA Representative Office in Kigali will save traders from Rwanda, Burundi and DRC from impersonators who pause as genuine agents.

“For anyone to clear his goods at the Mombasa port, they must have an agent, but we have suffered rampant impersonation of agents who disappear with our documents and money,” said Frank Mugabe, a trader.