Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIA Ports Authority (TPA) is eyeing increasing cargo handling from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the Dar es Salaam Port by almost 60 per cent in the coming two years, says the authority’s Director General Eric Hamisi.
The massive improvement at the Dar Port is anticipated to woo consignments from DRC which will see an increase of cargo from 1.9 million tonnes to 3 million tonnes per year.
Mr Hamisi revealed this when he convened a meeting with the DRC business community and Dar Port customers in Lubumbashi with the aim of collecting their views and addressing challenges experienced while using the transport facility.
“The port is prepared to arrive at the set goals within the two-year period from now as per the plans… In the past, the Dar es Salaam Port had the capacity to handle 17 million tonnes of cargoes annually applying for both the local and foreign markets, but due to the major expansion the rate has gone up to 30 million tonnes a year,” said Mr Hamisi.
Elaborating, he outlined a move undertaken by TPA in rolling out a special marketing campaign with the aim of expanding the scope and attracting more business at the Dar Port.
According to him, over the financial year 2020/21, the port recorded a staggering increase in cargo by an average of 57 per cent from the previous 1.1 million tonnes in 2016/17 to 1.9 million tonnes.
“Ongoing improvements being carried out at the port, a major boost in equipment, berths depth, strengthening its customer service unit and various marketing campaigns is a reflection of the recorded achievement,” stated the DG.
He added that “To a large extent the port has increased its efficiency in the area of cargo handling, which is anticipated to further boost revenues for TPA and the country as whole.”
Besides, the DG hinted that the agenda at the meeting involved getting their customers’ views and in the case of any challenges, they should present before them to seek their solutions.
Similarly, the management of TPA extended appreciation to the DRC business persons for choosing to export and import their goods through the Dar Port, citing that the traders could have chosen to explore other ports but chose Tanzania instead.
The DG underscored that the goal is to capture the entire DRC market, noting that currently the Dar Port was hosting cargo for about 35-40 per cent of the market with the other 60 per cent using ports in other countries.
Having collected the views and various encounters, the DG pledged to immediately resolve the issues, directing his subordinates to work on the matters in the agreed time frames.
Issues that did not directly link to TPA, he pledged to present the matters to responsible authorities for them to acquire desired solutions.
“We looked at the entire value chain from the port to the borders which are being handled by different players, the goal is to promote efficiency through the entire system,” he said.
Thus, the TPA Boss affirmed their commitment to ensure effective service delivery is being promoted across all their facilities.
The meeting was also attended by the Tanzania Shipping Agencies Corporation (TASAC) Director General (DG)Abdi Mkeyenge, The Ambassador of Tanzania in DRC, the Governor of Katanga Province and the Kalambo Constituency Member of Parliament.
Other includes representatives from the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Tanzania Freight Forwarders Association (TAFFA), and the Tanzania Shipping Agency (TASAA).
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