“We have agreed to build a dry port in DRC so that all cargoes shipment can be managed directly from Dar-es-Salaam port to Kalemi, and this will attract more traders to use our port and hence increase revenue collection,” said Hamissi.
He said regardless of large volume of cargoes from Tanzania to DRC market, TPA only manage 40% of the DRC trade movement which is still low and must be increased by expanding ports infrastructures that will accelerate the trading between the two countries.
“The port in Kigoma is under renovation and is currently in good status; the port in Kalema improvement has reached 70 percent and is expected to be handled to the government in July 2022. We have also managed to increase shipment of cargoes to DRC by 31 percent between 2020 and 2021,” Hamissi said.
TPA director of engineering service Baraka Mdima said the 62 hectares dry port is constructed in Katosho and what is currently waited is the construction of containers storage facilities.
Addressing the matter Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Work and Transport Gabriel Migire said there must be partnership between railways, ports and air transport authorities between the two countries so that they can fast-track logistics.
Last month, officials from Kinshasa announced they had obtained yard spaces in Dar es Salaam to roll out offices for DR Congo’s new shipping line: The Lignes Maritimes Congolaises (LMC) that started operations from this month.
The decision came after the DR Congo was formally admitted into the East African Community reflects the country’s desire to tap into the benefits of being in the trade bloc, where it is now cheaper and easier to import as tariffs are headed for reduction.
DRC’s new shipping line will also use Tanzanian ports and this could be an added incentive to Tanzania’s latest programme to expand its inland ports.
The Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA), for example, is expanding the Kasanga port on Lake Tanganyika at a cost of 4bn/- ($1.7 million). Kasanga is the second biggest port on Lake Tanganyika after Kigoma.
The ports authority said it is currently facilitating the exportation of bulk copper from the DRC.The Dar es Salaam port is currently, handling over 1.8 million tonnes of cargo from the DR Congo per year.Tanzania exports to the DRC in 2021 were estimated at $207.23 million, according to the Tanzania Embassy in Kinshasa.
This comes just a month after the end of the Lake Tanganyika Business Summit held in Kigoma deliberately discussed various measures to speed up movements of goods and people within the Great Lakes Region, mostly to DR Congo.
