Mombasa Port signals good tidings for EA trade

Money Markets

A section of Mombasa port. Full implementation of the performance charter is expected to improve efficiency at the facility. file 

By Chris Kiptoo

In Summary

• The reality however is that while East Africa is the second fastest growing region in the world economically, it is the second most expensive region to do business.

President Uhuru Kenyatta is this morning expected to mark yet another milestone in the journey to making Mombasa a world class port with the launch of the performance charter meant to put all processes at East Africa’s gateway on a measurable scale.

 

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This is the culmination of recent efforts to improve services at the facility that is the key entry point for Kenya and East Africa. The Mombasa port is also the key intermodal point for road and rail transport along the Northern Corridor that connects Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi Southern Sudan and Eastern DRC markets.

Its strategic location is a key factor in the region’s growth and is today one of the busiest ports along the Indian Ocean coastline.

In the recent years, various projects and measures have been undertaken to improve port capacity and efficiency over the past few years.

Billions of shillings have been spent on the dredging of the port to a depth of 15 metres to accommodate large Post-Panamax vessels, construction of Berth 19 with a quay length of 240m extending the total quay length to 840m.

There is also the ongoing construction of the second Container Terminal with a capacity to handle 1.2 million TEUs annually once completed and, Enhanced Port Security through the Integrated Security System with the support of the World Bank.

The ongoing infrastructure capacity enhancements are highly encouraging and are bound to ensure that the installed capacity at the port keeps up with the constant growing volumes and associated demand for services.

Containerised traffic passing through the port is expected to continue growing at the rate of 10 per cent per annum and all other traffic to grow at 5.5 per cent per annum. 

Port throughput is forecast to stand at 44.03 million tonnes by 2025. Twenty foot equivalent units (TEU) containers will increase from 903,000 TEU in 2012 to 2.5 million TEU in 2025.

The reality however is that while East Africa is the second fastest growing region in the world economically, it is the second most expensive region to do business. This is what the latest initiatives are meant to change.

Port Community Charter: Past attempts to address some of the challenges that the port has experienced over the past four decades have focused on KPA as an institution and wrongly excluded the multiplicity of statutory bodies as well as the private sector players who are an integral part of trade facilitation.

Today’s launch of the charter is the culmination of one-and-a-half years of intense and extensive consultations among stakeholders, including government agencies, business, civil society organisations, and the Coastal communities.

The charter has four objectives that seek to establish a permanent framework for collaboration that binds the port community together, complement individual institutional service charters.

It hoped that its adoption will help nature best industry customs and practices among cargo owners, traders, labour unions, the civil society, donors and the general public. The charter also seeks to develop and implement a self-monitoring and evaluation mechanism for collective community obligations.

To speed up realisation of the potential of the Mombasa corridor and spur East Africa’s economic growth, the Port community has set ambitious goals that must be achieved to create the requisite momentum.