Rwanda has opened the Masaka dry port for business with the
launch on Monday of the $35 million-worth Kigali Logistics Platform,
built and operated by Dubai World—a United Arab Emirates-based trade
logistics firm.
The facility provides services in
container handling, loading and unloading from trucks, warehousing and
cold storage; and is expected to reduce the time taken for cargo
truck-turnaround from two weeks to three days.
It was developed through a concession. Dubai World will run it for 25 years before handing it over to the government.
The
port’s construction began in early 2016 in Masaka, east of Kigali,
close to the special economic zone and will link Rwanda to both the
Northern and Central transport corridors, as well as save almost $50
million a year in logistics costs when operating at full capacity,
according to the Rwanda Development Board.
Patience Mutesi, the country director for Trademark East Africa told The EastAfrican that the logistics hub will help solve some of the persistent bottlenecks that dog the movement of goods to and from Rwanda.
“Many
challenges still exist for traders in the region. Offloading and
reloading outbound cargo at both the Mombasa and Dar es Salaam ports
takes days and sometimes even weeks to be completed,” said Ms Mutesi.
The Masaka dry port was therefore developed as the logical
termination point of the proposed standard gauge railway from both the
Uganda and Tanzania line, to improve connectivity with the ports of
Mombasa in Kenya and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
The
Kigali Logistics Platform has an annual capacity of handling 50,000
containers, and is the country’s first 24-hour monitored inland cargo
terminal.
Users will be able to track their goods
through mobile and online apps. Before it, the country’s cargo was
handled by the Magerwa Warehouse, which has had a monopoly since 1963,
operating warehouses at every border post.
The Magerwa
Warehouse is managed by Singaporean firm Portek International, and
currently handles 90 per cent of all imports, as well as goods
transiting through and exported from Rwanda.
Officiating
the opening, President Paul Kagame said; “With the launch of this
facility, Rwanda is doing its part to connect with the larger market of
more than 1.2 billion consumers in Africa and beyond. The Kigali
Logistics Platform is really getting up and running at a pivotal moment
in our continent’s economic transformation.”
He added:
“We, therefore, want to challenge our business people and investors,
starting with the industries located in this neighbourhood and from the
region and beyond, to make full use of it. There is no excuse not to
pursue the vast opportunities available to us.”
Strategic partnership
Sultan
Ahmed Bin Sulayem, DP World chairman and CEO, said: “We look forward to
building on our strategic partnership with the Rwandan government to
expand the logistics and trade sector, by empowering the Rwandan people
to increase the attractiveness of the country as a key trade hub in
Africa.”
Market estimates show that the cost of
transporting a 20-foot container from China to Mombasa is about
$500-$1,000, but skyrockets to about $4,000 when moving the same
container from Mombasa to Kigali.
“This logistics hub
will compliment Rwanda’s ambition to promote its exports through the
‘Made in Rwanda’ initiative, and it is now up to exporters to increase
their quantities,’’ said Seka Fred, president of the Federation of East
African Freight Forwarders Associations.
Meanwhile,
Kenya recently announced plans to set up warehouses in Rwanda, Burundi
and the Democratic Republic of Congo to tighten its grip on the regional
export market in the hinterland.
The government has
already embarked on constructing an inland port in Naivasha, 200km east
of Nairobi, near where the SGR currently terminates.
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