Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) has posted higher revenue collection of 236.8bn/- in the second quarter of this year up from 203bn/- collected during the first quarter, an equivalent to 16.7 per cent increase.
The revenue surge is among the achievements the TPA has recorded during the 100 days of President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
TPA Director-General Eric Hamissi noted that the monthly collection of 84bn/- recorded in May, this year is the highest ever over the last 10 years. Speaking at a forum in Dar es Salaam over the weekend on President Samia’s 100 days in the office, Mr Hamissi said from April – June 2021, the Authority has collected 236.8bn/- which is also up by almost 15 per cent comparing to 206bn/- collected during the corresponding period last year.
“Collecting 84bn/- in a month is a milestone, we have never collected that amount of money per month,” he said at the forum organised by the Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC).
Mr Hamissi said in her first 100 days, President Samia has provided 165bn/- for completion of the ongoing berths expansion works at Dar es Salaam port.
He further said so far, the expansion for berth 1 – 5 is complete and now they are working on berth 6 – 7 which are also almost complete.
He said construction of the container yard is expected to be completed in August this year.
After completion, the volume of cargo handled at the Dar es Salaam Port is projected to rise by 7.5 million tonnes – to 25 million tonnes in 2025 – compared to the 17.5 million tonnes handled last year.
“For a long time, we have not invested heavily in machinery and equipment at our ports. Within 100 days, President Samia has been able to issue 97.6bn/- so that we can open letters of credit and bring in the required machinery,” he said
According to the TPA boss, they have already found a supplier to bring these machines from August 2020 and it was ready to be brought in the country but there was no money to open letters of credit. They expect within three months the equipment will be shipped into the country.
On Dar es Salaam Port efficiency, he said as port’s performance is measured by the time it takes to unload and load cargo and in that front there is massive improvement whereby, they can now unload cargoes within 48 hours instead of five days.
“Two major shipping companies — Mediterranean Shipping Company and Linea Messina have written letters congratulating TPA on being able to unload their cargo for 48 hours, instead of five days. When we bring in the new equipment, we will change the target and set it at 24 hours,” he said
The TPA boss said they have also been able to involve stakeholders in improving their services, whereby they have been meeting with various stakeholders.
Last month, he met with truck drivers and gave them inputs that helped reduce congestion at the port.
“We have also opened a call centre to bring us closer to our customers, it will be operating 24 hours a day and we will be receiving information and resolving minor customer concerns,” said Mr Hamissi
He added, “We have also revived the Port Improvement Committee (PIC) where there are many stakeholders in it including business people as well as public institutions. Previously, this committee was led by TPA DG but we have decided to change that and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Transport is the chairman of this committee.” He said the purpose of the committee is to bring TPA closer to its stakeholders, where they will be able to discuss challenges related to the port and solve them.
On his part, Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) Director-General, Mr Masanja Kadogosa said the government has released 376.34bn/- for the construction of the 341-kilometre Mwanza-Isaka Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project.
He said they were researching to help them identify where the railway line will pass.
“The task of identifying the route is at 90 per cent. We have also started to identify the people who are supposed to be compensated to pave the way for this project,” he said.
Mr Kadogosa noted that apart from Kwale, they will build some dry ports in Mwanza and Kalema in Bukoba to facilitate transportation of cargo going to Uganda and Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
