Dar Es Salaam: SOME members of Private Sector have called on government to put more efforts towards decongesting the border between Tanzania and Zambia—Tunduma in order to rescue the Dar es Salaam Port (DP) from collapse.
They argue that congestion at Tunduma border makes the Dar es Salaam Port unattractive for importers from East and Central African countries.
Tunduma is the largest border in Tanzania in terms of volume of transit cargo.
Transit cargo traffic represents 30.4% of total cargo handled by DP during 2013/14 but this could be affected if urgent actions were not taken.
Speaking during a workshop to introduce freight exchange tool called E-Freightex in Dar es Salaam recently, stakeholders said the congestion at Tunduma border was getting beyond control.
“I would like to request the government to speak to their counterparts, Zambia, to adopt pre-clearance of goods system or allocate land for Dry Port to rescue the situation,” said Mr Fahmy Ahmed, Managing Director of GreatLakes Frieght Ltd
According to Ahmed, although the situation is much worse on Zambia side than on Tanzania side, still there is a lot to be done on Tanzania side too.
“It takes 45 days (go and return) to deliver goods in Zambia and out of that we spend 15 days at the Tunduma border. This cost us a lot of demurrage charges,” said Mr Ahmed who is a member of Tanzania Truck Owners Association (TATOA).
Mr Ahmed explained that 80% of all transit containers destined to Zambia, DRC, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda are charged demurrage charges by shipping liners for delaying to return the empty containers at DP.
“We are given 40 days to return the containers. If it goes beyond that we have to pay demurrages and all this money (about $10 million per anum) goes to foreign companies instead of remaining in Tanzania,” Ahmed said.
According to Mr Chief Mwakibete, Chairman of Teddy Junior Ltd, the DP and Tanzania in general is likely to lose business from Namibian port of Walvis Bay because currently, Namibia is building roads and bridges for Zambia and Congo DRC so that the two countries can use Walvis Bay instead of the DP.
“Walvis Bay Port Corridor (Namibia) has been given money by its government and they have representatives all over the world including Dar es Salaam, Brazil, Thailand just to make sure their (Namibia) cargo move smoothly,” Said Mwakibete whose company represents Walvis Bay Corridor in Tanzania.
The Director General of Tanzania Trade Development Authority (TanTrade) MS Jacqueline Maleko told the workshop that the government through sectoral Permanent Secretaries had an audience with Zambian authorities in the past but the move to install Dry Port at Nakonde could not materialize.
“The government is very much aware of the problem. There are several ongoing efforts to discuss with Zambia to address the situation,” Ms Maleko said
The Tunduma discussion came up after some members of the workshop noted that in order for freight exchange system though E-Freightex to be successful, significant improvements needed to be done on eradication of road NTBs.
A freight exchange is an online service which allows truck owners to search for advertisements of cargo which need to be transported and freight forwarders or business people search for available trucks to transport their cargo.
According to the Acting Direct of Investment, Trade and Productive Sector from Ministry of East African Cooperation Mr Bernard Haule, the E-Freightex mechanism will increase bargaining power of transporters.
“It will also help them choose the most cost effective routes because they will have all options on their finger tips,” said Mr Haule
E-Freightex sensitization workshop was organized by TradeMark East African (TMEA) and Tanzania Trade Development Authority (Tantrade) and was facilitated by a consultant, David Adolwa.
for more information on e-Freightex please click here
Tanzania urged to adopt freight exchange mechanism | Government Of United Republic of Tanzania
TANZANIA has been urged to seize an opportunity to swiftly adopt and utilize a freight exchange tool called E-Freightex that will easily facilitate transporters in the East African region cut cost and gain more profits.
