Uganda and Tanzania Plan US$ 2.7b Investment at Dar es Salaam port

Wednesday February 9, 2011

UGANDA and Tanzania are in talks on a $2.7b joint investment to develop infrastructure on the Dar es Salaam port.

The Tanzanian transport minister, Omari Nundu, said the development would cover the Indian Ocean port of Tanga, building the Tanga-Arusha-Musoma railway, and the rehabilitation of the Musoma-Mwamba road.

Port Bell pier, a new Kampala port, and the rehabilitation of ferries, are part of the talks.

“It is our intention to dedicate the route to Uganda,” Nundu told a conference attended by Ugandan businessmen in the Tanzanian capital last week.

He said the move would push up Uganda’s use of Dar as an alternative to Mombasa.

Figures show that Dar es Salaam only accounts for 1% of all trade from Uganda, with 99% going through Mombasa.

Ugandan businessmen noted that Dar and Kampala would have to make some concessions to promote the route.

“For a start, you need to talk to Kampala not to charge tax freight when we use the Central Corridor. This will be a good incentive,” Busingye Rwabogo, the Mukwano Industries operations general manager, said.

He argued that the cost of the additional 600km on the route compared to the Mombasa would be difficult to transfer to the customer.

Other suggestions were for service points along the road, revamping of the railway line to Mwanza and improvement of security on the route.

During a separate tour of the port of Dar es Salaam, the businessmen were shown new investments and restructuring that has brought down cargo time at the port from 25 days to a 11 with efforts to half that time.

By Paul Busharizi in Dar es Salaam The New Vision Newspaper