TANZANIA Ports Authority (TPA) stakeholders want the Dar es Salaam port to operate as a one stop centre and banks serving port clients to operate on 24 hours and seven days a week to boost efficiency.

The stakeholders who met in Dar es Salaam recently said their recommendations would help to clear backlog of customers using the port on time and reduce red tape to increase its efficiency as it strives to become the major entry hub for the East and central African region.

Institutions whose offices are preferred to be at the close proximity or right at the port include Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), Tanzania Foods and Drugs Authority (TFDA), Government Chemist, Atomic Agency and Weight and Measure Agency.

“These institutions are directly involved in inspecting incoming cargo through our port,” said the TPA’s Acting Director General, Mr Awadh Massawe, who also doubles as the Chairperson of the meetings.

The stakeholders say by putting all the institutions under one umbrella, it will help in reducing time currently used in inspection processes hence increasing efficiency,” he said.

Mr Massawe said TPA was constructing a building of which such institutions can request for a space to enable majority of services be under a one stop centre.

The President of Tanzania Freight Forwarders Association (TAFFA), Mr Stephene Ngatunga said having a one stop centre will help spearheading TPA’s aim of making Tanzania the main gateway for neighbouring landlocked countries.

In an earlier meeting, the stakeholders called for banks serving port clients to operate for 24 hours and seven days a week to increase the speed of cargo clearance.

“Since the port of Dar es Salaam operates 24 hours a day, stakeholders want the banking sector to operate the same way to make it easy for customers to clear their cargo faster since a lot of payments are made through the banking system.”

Port stakeholders want easier and readily availability of authorities and institutions dealing with cargo processing at the port, he said. “These suggestions are geared toward making our port more competitive in the region, we will see how to implement them,” he said.

TPA management and port’s stakeholders have agreed to meet every month to discuss and chart way forward toward the development of Dar port. Dar es Salaam port has of lately become a major entry hub for our country and our neighbours thanks to the ongoing transfomation at the port.

In 2014 the port served 630,000 tonnes of cargo for Rwanda compared to 213,000 tonnes served by Mombasa port for the same country.

The port also served 1,500,000 tonnes of cargo for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) while Mombasa had only 437,000 tonnes of cargo for DRC during the same period.

According to Massawe, the statistics and experience indicate how neighbouring countries have their confidence and faith in Dar Port following major transformations that are still ongoing.

“These positive changes have started to bear fruits,” he said, adding that the average waiting time for ships to offload is one and a half hour compared to 28 hours in the past seven years.

The Dar port serves seven neighbouring countries which include DRC, Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Source: All Africa

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