Dar es Salaam and Tanzania’s other ports can
accommodate the increasing growth in demand
for port capacity that economic forecasters
believe is just around the corner. Construction
and dredging of the entrance channel are well
underway to increase the size of Dar es Salaam
port’s eight berths and to add another three
large enough to accommodate more of the
shipping industry’s fleet of ever-larger containers.
In the aftermath of the Suez Canal blockage
last year, Hamissi is all too aware of the risks
involved. “We don’t believe in trial and error,”
he says. “We only allow ships in here that our
facilities can accommodate.” Thanks to its
judicious investment in targeted expansion and
state-of-the-art equipment, there will soon be
few if any ships that Dar es Salam will not be
able to handle.
“Investment in infrastructure and equipment
are just the means to an end,” says Hamissi.
“I am forever telling my colleagues that both
importers and exporters will only be your friend
if you reduce their costs and time. For me, it is
all about efficiency, efficiency, efficiency.”
A
monumental logistical achievement, the
unloading operation also marked another
step in Tanzania’s journey to establish
itself as a regional maritime and logistics hub,
as well as a magnet for foreign investment
into one of the world’s most dynamic regions.
Investors around the world likely noted that
Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ethiopia were all ranked
among the world’s fastest growing economies
in 2020, while foreign direct investment into
East Africa more than doubled in 2019. Much
of this investment is destined for the technology,
manufacturing and services sectors, as the
region breaks away from its former dependency
on agricultural and mining.
Helping Tanzania take full advantage of this
momentum is a top priority for Samia Suluhu
Hassan, the President of Tanzania, and Eric
Benedict Hamissi, the recently appointed
director general of the Tanzania Ports Authority
(TPA), the organization at the center of this
initiative to capitalize on East Africa’s network of
booming economies.
Established in 2004, TPA is headquartered in
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital
and its largest port. TPA’s mandate also covers
the country’s other seaports, as well as those
situated inland on the shores of Lakes Victoria,
Tanganyika and Nyasa. Through these ports
TPA provides its landlocked neighbors Malawi,
Zambia, DRC, Burundi, Uganda and Rwanda
with an increasingly vital commercial lifeline to
the world’s maritime routes.
As both landlord and operator for all the
country’s ports, the TPA is responsible for their
development and management and plays a key
role in promoting East Africa’s future prosperity.
First and foremost, the port of Dar es Salaam is
a shop window for the whole country. “How we
perform reflects on the image of all of Tanzania,”
says Hamissi. “Until recently, people thought of
Tanzania as a growing economy but not one that
was necessarily modern and efficient. I want
to be remembered as the man who increased
the country’s port efficiency ratio from 50% to
100%.”
Things have certainly improved dramatically
since 2013, when the twice-yearly Tanzania
Economic Update reported that container
vessels had to queue for up to 10 days for a
berth at Dar Es Salaam port and then contend
with a cumbersome off-loading operation. These
and other inefficiencies were costing shippers
and shipping companies an estimated $250
million or more a year in anchorage costs, while
government agencies (including the TPA) were
losing nearly $160 million annually.
In 2015, the TPA was given the green light for
the Dar es Salaam Maritime Gateway Project,
a $421 million effort designed to enable the
port to cope with a predicted growth in cargo
volumes of 43% by 2025. To accommodate
that growth, the project aims to increase the
port’s cargo-handling capacity to 25 million
tons in 2025, from 17.5 million tons in 2020.
Without this initiative, that vehicle carrier would
have been unloading its thousands of cars in
some other port this past summer.
But this is just the beginning for Mr.
Hamissi. “We were really happy to break the
record,” says Hamissi, “but also because the
demand for the vehicles aboard the vessel
indicated that the economies of East Africa
were continuing to grow.”
Hamissi is now fully focused on ensuring that
TANZANIA PORTS AUTHORITY–
State of the Art Maritime Services
A giant vehicle carrier docked in Dar es Salaam last August
and proceeded to unload 3,743 cars, surpassing not just the
Tanzanian port’s own handling capacity record, but beating
that of every other sub-Saharan port.
Eric Benedict Hamissi
Director General of the Tanzania Ports Authority.
"WE ARE ALIGNED WITH H.E
PRESIDENT SAMIA SUHULU
HASSAN'S EFFORTS TO BRAND
TANZANIA AS A WORLD CLASS
INVESTMENT DESTINATION."
CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR
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