TPA tasked to decongest Dar Port

Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) was on Friday, April 8, directed to further improve the performance of the Dar es Salaam Port by decongesting it among other measures which will attract more traders to use the port.
The directive were issued by Works and Transport minister Makame Mbarawa during the event to receve the largest ship ever to arrive at the port.

The ship contained 4,041 vehicles, of which 1,105 would remain in the country, while 2,936 were meant for transit to neighbouring countries including Burundi, DR Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The ship christened MV Frontier Ace GRT, which weights some 52,276 tonnes and is 189.45-metre long, arrived in the country direct from Japan via Singapore and set a record at the port, according to TPA officials.
TPA director general Eric Hamissi said the achievement was due to ongoing improvements at the port which made them even more confident that they would continue to serve bigger consignments of mixed cargo as well as offer other services. He said the cargo serviced at the port in one year to February 2022 reached 185,524 vehicles which is an increase of 2.2 percent compared to the target of servicing 181,492 vehicles.
“Revenue collected in the period from March 2021 to February 2022 amounted to Sh1.018 trillion equivalent to 95.5 percent of the target of Sh1.067 trillion,” he said.
He added that the revenue was 18.8 percent higher than that of the same period last year.
“These successes are due to the economic diplomatic relations established by President Samia Suluhu Hassan through overseas visits in line with the port infrastructure improvements while the security and safety environment contributes to customer trust as well,” said Mr Hamissi
However, Prof Mbarawa directed TPA, instead of boasting that the port had broken records by importing more vehicles at the same time, they should ensure that the comparison was based on the situation in countries with competing ports.
“If you want to measure yourself well, don’t just compare yourself, compare your performance with what your peers, how you fair against international standards. This is what I want to hear going forward,” he pointed out.
On decongesting the port, and in line with Ms Hassan’s directives to ensure all vehicles were inspected before importation, Prof Mbarawa said that the inland container deports (ICDs) must be fully used to reduce congestion at the port and let the facility do its specific work of offloading cargo.
“Vehicle ICD’s should be made operational immediately, otherwise we will not achieve the goal of making this port a commercial hub,” he said.
He ordered that all containers that had been in the port for a long time be removed and stressed that the port was not meant for container storage, but only for unloading.
He noted that there were overcrowded foreign ships that were supposed to enter the country but they were delayed due to limited performance.
“I believe there are small facilities but if we plan well by organising our crew properly the overcrowding will be reduced and that is possible,” he noted.
He said any port gets more businesses due to security at the port, noting that the port of Dar es Salaam was currently safe but officials should heighten security measures.