Africa-Press – South-Sudan. Kenya has invited South Sudan to start importing through the newly built Port of Lamu saying the facility was ready and geared to provide shorter passage to Juba than Mombasa, the current gateway through which the country used to import most of the goods from the international markets.
The Port of Lamu is part of the regional infrastructure and transport corridor projects known as the Lamu Port-South Sudan- Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET) initiated by Kenya, South Sudan, and Ethiopia to facilitate trade, promote regional economic integration and interconnectivity between the partner states.
Speaking at the Port of Lamu during the visit of South Sudan officials and journalists to the construction sites of various projects under the LAPSSET Corridor, Peter Masinde, Head of Operations at Kenya Ports Authority in Lamu Island, urged the South Sudan government and business community to start importing goods through the facility at lesser cost and promotion package of thirty days of free storage.
“The biggest advantage that South Sudanese will get from this port is in terms of fewer expenses because Mombasa port is heavily congested though this port is not outcompeting Mombasa…So, any importer that brings cargo through the Lamu Port, there is space. They can enjoy more periods of storage. We have currently given them a promotion rate of 30 days of free storage as a direct benefit,” the Kenyan official revealed last Friday in Lamu
The South Sudan delegation comprising officials from the Ministry of Transport led by Engineer Lado T. Tombe, the Ministry’s Director-General for Road Transport and Safety in the accompany of reporters from Juba-based media houses including Juba Monitor, traveled to Kenyan cities of Nairobi and Lamu between February 22, 2022 and February 26, 2022to witness the construction of LAPSSET Corridor projects the.
The officials on Wednesday held talks with the Kenyan LAPSSET Corridor DevelopmentAuthority (LCDA) Chief Peter Ikua and Ethiopian Ambassador to KenyaMelesAlemamong other officials of the two LAPSSET partner states before traveling to Lamu Island on Thursday and returning to Nairobi the following day. They jetted back to Juba on Saturday at the end of the four-day trip facilitated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
Masinde told the visiting team at Lamu that the port with three of its 23 berths completed, had started handling transit shipments as constructions of other facilities continued.
The visit of the officials to Kenya comes as South Sudan attempt to catch up with the two partner states of Kenya and Ethiopia to start implementing the LAPSSET Corridor projects to connect Juba to the Port of Lamu through a highway at its border with Kenya.
Although most of the LAPSSET Corridor Projectmajor components which include ports, pipelines, roads, and railways are yet to be completed, the other two LAPSSET states have gone ahead of the country which is yet to start implementing any of the projects which was launched in 2012.
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